I understand and accept a lot of the security measures in place.  I'm ok with Border Patrol taking a quick scan through my pictures to make sure I'm not photographing things that put them in direct danger.  I'm ok with turning on my laptop to prove that it's not a bomb.  I'm not ok with them having a copy of everything on my computer.  Especially to hold indefinitely.  Without probable cause.

I don't like it on several levels.
First, I like my 4th and 5th Amendment Rights just as much as the 19th.  When I joined the military in 1999 it was to protect my country and uphold our values and rights.  It pisses me off to see the things I joined to defend being raped, especially since I can't do a damn thing to stop it.

Second, I know too many people who have banking information on their computer.  All it takes is one less-than-scrupulous Border Patrol Guy to make a copy of certain files, or lose the hard drive they're stored on, and the government will, once again, be responsible for a round of identity theft. 

Third, they don't even have to give a reason "Because I said so" shouldn't apply once you move out of your parents' house.

Grr!

Same boat as me.

I'm afraid its worse than that phobos.  Customs agents have been able to search pretty much anything they want at a border crossing for a long time, its only the confiscation of laptops policy that's changed.  I seem to recall right-wingers using border searches as a way to try to prove that Clinton was turning the US into a police state, back in the day.

We've been fighting the War on Drugs_TM for a lot longer than the War on Terror_TM and I think that the former has actually done a lot more to hurt civil liberties within the US than the later.

Not really.

Haha, McJobs.

The problem is that government agencies make up regulations and enforce them as laws. Remember you can only sue the government if the government lets you.

The irony is, I actually have a thing that allows a user with a laptop travel internationally with nothing but a blank laptop. Or, conversely, I can have laptops shipped back and forth across the country, and access information securely online.

The thing is, I don't like the idea that my person is subject to the whims of the US government when I cross the border into another country. I don't like the idea that I only have my personal rights when I live in the US. I check out. I am licensed to carry a concealed firearm in Washington State. My prints are all on file. I fit no profiles of dangerous individuals. So if my stuff gets searched/sequestered, I should have the RIGHT to know why my personal possessions are under quarantine.

I also don't have much of a problem with requesting someone who opens my laptop to sign an NDA that is 20 pages long.