Under a new measure introduced by the Bush administration, federal agents may seize a traveler's laptop or other electronic devices to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing. The search policy by the Department of Homeland Security has been recently disclosed, The Washington Post reported.

According to the new policies released on July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies - U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement - federal agents may be entitled to share copies of the device’s contents with other agencies for language translation, data decryption or other reasons.

The new policies were labeled by Democrat Wisconsin Senator Russell Feingold as “truly alarming.” He added that he intends to introduce legislation requiring reasonable suspicion for searches and to forbid racial or other forms of profiling.

According to a statement released by the DHS, the policies apply to anyone entering the United States, including U.S. citizens. The department added that the policies have long been in place, but were disclosed recently due to public interest.

By public interest, the DHS probably referred to the pressure made by civil liberties and business travel groups as well as the growing number of international travelers who reported that their laptops and similar devices had been taken and examined by federal agents.

According to the policy, federal agents may take "any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form." This includes hard drives, flash drives, mobile phones, iPods and written material. Business information and attorney-client material must be protected, the policy says, but it doesn’t mention data such as medical and financial records.