DHS Privacy Report Downplays Laptop Searches

Policy Fugue by Kenneth Corbin (bio) Tracking the loveless marriage of technology and government

The Department of Homeland Security has released to Congress a report detailing its privacy activities from 2008 through 2009, offering a glimpse into the department’s work on a variety of privacy fronts, including the searches of laptops and other electronics devices and the government’s gradual embrace of social media.

The 99-page report (PDF available here) reads as a laundry list of DHS privacy initiatives during the past year and a half, containing a helpful appendix of three pages of acronyms.

In the area of border security, the department defended its use of RFID technology in developing enhanced drivers licenses to facilitate border crossings under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection unit has come under fire from civil liberties groups for searching the contents travelers’ electronic devices, particularly laptops.

[Continue reading this blog post at Policy Fugue by Kenneth Corbin]