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[byron mc]

In the October 2007 issue of "Wired" magazine on page 58 there is a small article about US Customs agents and the number of databases (4) for background checks and allowal to use "open source information" (meaning any and all traces of you online, from Facebook to Flickr to Wikipedia.)
Not the first preclearance check, but the pulled out of line for "secondary processing" the agent can search on the computer.
US Customs & Border Protection agents fall under the Department of Homeland Security.
Two separate cases of delay and refusal to allow entry to USA.

The photos of people doing illegal drugs can and will be come back to haunt them...

In the name of stopping terrorists this is yet another invasion of privacy and potential use of adding innacurrate data to our permanent record accessible by law enforcement (and who knows who else) by the government of the United States.

Byron

[padre29]

so to try to wrap my head around this, DHS is doing facebook and Myspace searches of people who want to exit or enter the US?

Well now, it would seem that LifeSec is now needed online.

[byron mc]

The Customs agents are 'allowed' to use open source info.
This does not mean they will always use it or do that first. It is one of a number of tools available to them along with the telephone to verify who this person crossing the border is and the purpose of his/her business visit.

Myspace and Facebook are two separate things. To someone in law enforcement/government I guess they would look at it as 2 separate "tools" to use....


-Byron

[da gooch]

So ..... 

IF I were so inclined ...... I could photo shop a picture of Shrub onto photo of the body of a spliff smoker and put it up on one of those sites and then IF it were ever scanned into the DHS data base it would become "Hard Evidence" of his complicity in drug smuggling ?

Just Great.

Score another one for the disinformation age.

PSM was it you that had a post that said something about " ... being able to pull the covers of ignorance back up over our heads "  ?

Boy ... Don't I wish sometimes ......
Then I realize it would still be happening I just wouldn't know about it.
And the statue of Justice has her blindfolded how apropos.

There isn't any such thing as Justice is there ?
Probably never was to begin with ......
sigh

[mutti]

After investigating themselves most thoroughly, the Office of Redundant Redundancy finds that they can in fact do whatever they please within 100 miles of the "Border":

DHS Watchdog OKs ‘Suspicionless’ Seizure of Electronic Devices Along Border : http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/02/electronics-border-seizures/?cid=co5746764

The Department of Homeland Security’s civil rights watchdog has concluded that travelers along the nation’s borders may have their electronics seized and the contents of those devices examined for any reason whatsoever — all in the name of national security.

Pretty interesting for those who reside in the "Orange" section of this map: