I see that a group calling itself the Association of Corporate Travel Executives is warning its members to limit the amount of proprietary business information they carry on laptops and the like because they’re afraid that government agents can seize that data at border crossings.
Excuse me if I grin a little at this. There must be thousands, tens of thousands, of laptops and USB drives stolen every day, and you’re worried about border guards? Please, get a clue. Custom agents are the least of your worries.
The real problem is carrying any proprietary business data on a laptop. Of course, the guy who swipes your notebook is probably far more likely to fence it for a dime on the dollar of its list value than he is interested in finding out your sales forecasts for the Acme SuperJuicers or even looking to see if you have customers’ credit card numbers. Still, the way I figure it, a common, every day thief is a lot more likely to look at your data than U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials.