[fragmede]

Which it should be noted, they do. Semi-truck sized x-ray machines exist, especially at border control, but also elsewhere, and is used to see inside of semi-trucks. Using that same device against a car seems entirely feasible. But as you point out, if they impound the vehicle, they can just inventory the trunk directly, assuming they have the key. If you have a locked safe in the trunk, I don't think they're (legally) allowed to x-ray it to find out what's inside of that, although they can parallel-reconstrution their way to having a reason after the fact.

[tptacek]

Since the time of the founders, you've had essentially no rights to privacy at border crossings.

"Parallel construction" is a message board argument. At the point where you've decided the law doesn't matter, we can just stop talking about this stuff, because none of it matters.

[fragmede]

Parallel construction isn't the theoretical stuff of paranoid hackers on online message boards. In a 2013 statement, it was revealed that the DEA uses parallel reconstruction "almost daily" to build criminal cases using evidence gathered by the NSA.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-dea-sod-idUSBRE97409R2013...

[tptacek]

Yes, yes. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

It seems very unlikely that anybody parallel constructed anything here, since an officer was able to see the guns with the assistance of a visor made of his fingers.