This Washington Post article was linked on the front page of Drudge:

Travelers’ Laptops May Be Detained At Border – No Suspicion Required Under DHS Policies

I’ve recommended only using your laptops as “dummy terminals,” (like I do with my Asus travel PC,) and keeping all information stored on removable drives and or FTP sites. But I never really thought I’d have to transport those flash drives and memory cards tucked into my shoe or taped to my genitals.

This is truly alarming… From the article:

Federal agents may take a traveler’s laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.

Also, officials may share copies of the laptop’s contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The policies cover “any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form,” including hard drives, flash drives, cell phones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes. They also cover “all papers and other written documentation,” including books, pamphlets and “written materials commonly referred to as ‘pocket trash’ or ‘pocket litter.’ “