| Clearly you're trolling, but in the interest of anyone else who might stumble upon this. The US is not even remotely the only country which asks for or requires information at the border they have no business asking for. * Canada routinely asks for phone unlocks or laptop passwords at the border and has tried and prosecuted one of their own citizens for refusing to give up the information. [1] * As the currently top-rated poster in this article thread points out, the Thai government asks for social media information at the border. [2] * It's common in many countries now to ask for access to laptops or phones. This includes Australia, Canada, and the UK as well as the United States obviously. * The UK has detained reporters [4] and seizes laptops from reporters [5] simply because they were encrypted and refused to turn over passwords. They've prosecuted and jailed 3 people for refusing adamantly to turn over their passwords, including a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic who was a UK citizen. [6] * Australian Customs requires you to declare pornography at the border, and if you don't or any pornography is discovered which violates the draconian obscenity laws there you can be detained and deported, or criminally charged. [7] These are all "Western" nations I'm picking on here, but my point is that this isn't some special feature of the "evil US imperialist pigs" as you seem to think. This is a widespread and growing issue all over the world, including in places which most people would consider traditionally to be bastions of human rights. This doesn't even begin to discuss China, or as you mentioned North Korea, or my own experiences traveling in the Middle East and North Africa. I'm very proud to be American, because I live in a society where despite how far we've fallen, the basic philosophy our country is founded on is one which respects and defends human rights including the right to privacy. It may require a lot of time or something disastrous happening in order to return things to a semblance of reason, but I have a lot more hope for the future of the United States than I do for nations with long histories of being violently oppressive. Please spread your Pro-NK/China propaganda elsewhere. [1] http://www.cbc.ca/news/alain-philippon-phone-password-case-p... [2] http://www.khaosodenglish.com/wp-content/uploads/pre/1460977... [3] http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/smartphone-laptop-searches-know... [4] http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-23782782 [5] https://sputniknews.com/voiceofrussia/2013_02_25/Outrageous-... [6] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/24/ripa_jfl/ [7] http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2010/05/australian-customs-officia... |
