The U.S. Department of Homeland Security gave green light to border authorities to seize travelers' laptops for an indefinite period of time, as well as create copies of the laptops' content. The policy applies to U.S. citizens, as well as to anyone else traveling in the Unites States.

Another recent set of rules issued by DHS earlier in July enabled custom agents to seize the laptops, as well as share the content of the laptops with agencies and private entities. The treatment will be applied to individuals attempting to enter, depart, pass through or reside in the United States.

According to DHS officials, these rules are necessary for preventing terrorist actions, and they have been in place for some time now, but they have only been disclosed recently because the public interest was at stake (or people started complaining...).

This adds up to another controversial decision in April this year by the U.S. Court of Appeals, who said custom officers need no motivation to search the content of passengers' laptops while at the border. The ruling came in opposition with a previous ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, according to which customs officers need reasonable suspicions to search a laptop.

The story revolved around the case of Michael Arnold, who in July 2005, on his return from a trip, was asked to reveal the content of his laptop to the customs agents. The search lead to child pornography accusations and the arrest of Arnold, who later claimed in court that the search had been unreasonable.

This shows that in some cases, searching one's laptop may lead to shocking discoveries, but on the other hand, this applies to anyone, for no reason, so if you're not prepared to let U.S. authorities check your laptop or other electronic devices, you'd better not travel with them.

According to DHS, “the examinations of documents and electronic devices are a crucial tool” for detecting terrorists, smugglers, evidence of child pornography, and information in violation of copyright law.