Commentary

Feds Want to Search Your Laptop and Cell Phone

The government is now searching and confiscating laptop computers and cell phones as they come through customs – and it might take a year for you to get your property back. The Washington Post reports some companies are now telling employees to erase their data before going on international trips because they don’t want private data and trade secrets in the government’s hands. In a new column, Reason Foundation’s Steve Titch Titch writes, “seizures of laptops and other electronic devices continue the troubling pattern on the part of the federal government to erode civil liberties in the name of security. Rather than make us safer, they likely put Americans and American interests at greater risk because they expose private and secure information.” Full Column