“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

Amendment 4 - Search and Seizure, The United States Constitution

How personal do you consider the data on your laptop, cellphone, or PDA to be? Do you keep confidential business, medical, or customer information on these devices? Do you think it’s reasonable to surrender this data every time you cross the border?

According to an article published today in the CS Monitor:

“For the past 18 months, immigration officials at border entries have been searching and seizing some citizens’ laptops, cellphones, and BlackBerry devices when they return from international trips.

In some cases, the officers go through the files while the traveler is standing there. In others, they take the device for several hours and download the hard drive’s content. After that, it’s unclear what happens to the data.

The Department of Homeland Security contends these searches and seizures of electronic files are vital to detecting terrorists and child pornographers. It also says it has the constitutional authority to do them without a warrant or probable cause.”

While I understand that we need make sure that law enforcement has all the tools available to protect our citizens, I think we really need to stop and consider why the founders considered it necessary to protect our rights against unreasonable search and seizure, and how we define that in the 21st century.

No doubt there are circumstances in which searching an individuals laptop is warranted, but the key word here is warrant, as in probable cause. As I understand the Constitution, just traveling across the border is not probable cause for the government to search and copy what may be a citizen’s most vital personal and and professional data, and than do who knows what with it.

As the recent votes in the house and senate on the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (which Rep. Connie Mack supported) seem to demonstrate, our representatives in Congress have apparently forgotten all about the Fourth Amendment, and feel that the laws that protect you and I don’t necessarily apply to the president or the most powerful telecom corperations whenever these laws become inconvenient.

What do you think the odds are that if a group of concerned citizens seized our congressman’s personal laptop and made copies of his hard drive, they’d get retroactive immunity? What would happen if we demanded to take a look at the Vice President’s cell phone?

Now I’m not suggesting anyone should attempt this, but I do think it’s worth pondering why this government seems to feel that it has no accountability to the people they serve when it comes to their own secrets, but that we the people have no right to our own personal privacy.  It’s also worth asking exactly who is protecting who here, and from what?

It’s time for the people to take back our government. It’s time for a change…