Border Agents Can Frisk Your Laptop and Gadgets Without Cause

If you don’t want border agents to see nekkid pictures of your significant other, you might wanna leave your laptop at home when you travel abroad. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled earlier this week that computers are like any other dumb luggage, so they’re subject to search even without reasonable suspicion that you’re a terrorist or doing anything illegal.

The District Court for California had previously said laptop searches were an “intrusion of the mind” but the feds appealed to the Ninth Court, arguing that laptops are like any other container, and they need to search them to prevent crime and terrorism.

The law already allows border agents to rifle through diaries and other “personal material” without cause, so this isn’t a huge change in one sense, but the Association of Corporate Travel Executives is now advising corporate drones to avoid carrying proprietary information with them across US borders. Wow, I never thought I’d be on the same side of an argument as a bunch of suits. [InfoWeek, Thanks Carlos]