It may surprise many air travelers, but your laptop and its contents are far from secret at the nation's international airports. Increasingly, this is prompting new privacy concerns for business travelers.
Customs and Border Protection agents have the authority to search and seize laptop computers belonging to travelers entering the United States, those of U.S. citizens and foreigners alike. And they use it.
But just how far these officers can go in inspecting the contents of an overseas traveler's laptop is being tested in federal court.
In July 2005, Michael Timothy Arnold, then 43, of San Juan Capistrano arrived at Los Angeles International Airport after a nearly 20-hour flight from the Philippines, according to court documents.
After retrieving his luggage from baggage claim, he proceeded to the customs checkpoint. An agent selected him for additional screening because she was targeting single males between 20 and 59 who were returning from Asia.
After some secondary questioning, the agent inspected Arnold's luggage, including his laptop computer. She instructed Arnold to turn on the computer.
When the computer booted up, its desktop displayed the usual assortment of icons and folders, including two folders titled "Kodak Pictures" and "Kodak Memories." The agent and a colleague clicked on the folders and looked at photographs on the computer, including one of two nude women.
Special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were called in to question Arnold about the contents of his computer.
He was detained for several hours while they examined the computer, and they found numerous images depicting what they believed to be child pornography.
The agents confiscated the computer as well as a hard drive, some CDs and a flash drive and released Arnold. He was later arrested, jailed, held without bail until this week, and charged with transporting and possessing child pornography and attempting to engage in illicit conduct in a foreign place.
It is cases like Arnold's that have corporate travel managers up in arms -- but not because of the pornography connection. Their concern is with what happens to the proprietary data that business travelers often carry on their laptops.
"That U.S. government officials have the right to examine, download or even seize business travelers' laptops came as a surprise to the majority of our members," said Susan Gurley, executive director of the Assn. of Corporate Travel Executives, an Alexandria, Va.-based trade group.
