Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) announced today that the agency will begin new directives to
“enhance and clarify” oversight for searches conducted on computers and
other forms of digital media at U.S. ports of entry.
This new directive details the circumstances in which DHS agencies
(CBP, ICE) can conduct searches of electronic media at ports of entry;
these circumstances are similar to the justifications for searching
other “sensitive” material, such as briefcases, backpacks and notebooks.
“Keeping Americans safe in an increasingly digital world depends on our
ability to lawfully screen materials entering the United States,” said
Napolitano. “The new directives announced today strike the balance
between respecting the civil liberties and privacy of all travelers
while ensuring DHS can take the lawful actions necessary to secure our
borders.”
This directive, promoted today by DHS, comes just one day after the
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a Freedom of Information
Act lawsuit against the agency, asking for clarification of its search
policy and the impact that policy has had on the civil liberties of
travelers at U.S. ports of entry over the past year. This is the ACLU’s
second request for information; it’s first occurred in June of this
year.
ACLUE has commented that current policy allows for government agents to
read information on travelers’ laptops and other digital media, without
any particular and individualized suspicion. This includes information
such as personal financial data, photographs and web browsing history.
The new DHS directive, according to DHS, will “ensure training
materials and procedures promote fair and consistent enforcement of the
law relating to electronic media searches.” Travelers that are being
searched will also now receive material that lets them know the reasons
for the search, how the data discovered might be used and additional
information about the traveler’s constitutional and statutory rights.
