[powertower]

> Between October 2008-August 2009, for example, more than 220 million people travelled to and from the US, according to Department of Homeland Security officials.

> During that time authorities searched about 1,000 laptops carried by travellers.

We don't live in the police state that most Snowden and Kim Dotcom supporters here tell us that we do.

I get really tired of seeing anecdotes used to represent the average.

[iaskwhy]

Tangential. One of the reason I love "V for Vendetta" is how it shows how normal it is to live under a dictatorship. Thing is, for most people, there's almost no difference, mainly during the most recent dictatorships. But for a very particular minority, life is very very different. I should know, I'm currently in a country where 50 years ago there was a dictator and it's not uncommon for normal people to claim how things were maybe better during those decades. Well, my grandfather, tortured by the state police for being part of an union, wouldn't agree. But for the other 99% of the population, life was, give or take, just as it is.

[powertower]

> But for a very particular minority, life is very very different.

That's pretty much true for any and every society.

[iaskwhy]

Can you expand on that?

[wvenable]

If you are a political activist, it seems the odds of getting your laptop searched is many orders of magnitude greater than the general population.

[erichocean]

Which is, in effect, a prior restraint on political speech, so you'd think the Supreme Court would be all over that.

[dotBen]

I had my laptop searched during this time by a CBP officer at the US border in Calgary airport. There was no documentation of the event and the only 'receipt' I got was a pamphlet telling me that it was legal and what my rights were (none really).

My point is I highly doubt the extent is as little as 1,000 as most searches are not logged.

(I'm not a US Citizen, so my rights were further limited given US had no obligation to let me in)

[powertower]

Are you sure it was searched (indexed or imaged) rather than just checked (powered on and/or checked for hidden contraband)?

[dotBen]

It all comes down to semantics, doesn't it?

It wasn't imaged or indexed but the officer sat down and looked through it for quite some time.

I think you asked people what they thought the 1000 searches consisted of, they would include a CBP officer going through the contents of a laptop as a "search".