A tale combining horror and farce from those lovable clowns at HM Customs.

	Stop you in an airport and demand to scan your hard drive	Next time the bile begins to rise in your throat after hearing that Congress is trying, yet again, to impose ham-fisted legislation on cyberspace, take a deep breath and be thankful. Despite Congressional attempts to pencil-whip the First Amendment when it comes to the Internet, no government agent is stopping you in airports and demanding to scan your hard drive. Yet. But that’s exactly what’s happening on a regular basis in the United Kingdom.        “Some days it’s a bad hair day, other days you see the suite of Western values since the Enlightenment quashed in an instant by a single, soulless, civil servant.” So begins the harrowing tale of Kenn Cukier, a reporter for Communications Week International.        Cukier had just stepped off the Chunnel train from Paris to London and proceeded to clear customs. Suddenly two agents of the British Customs and Excise Office uttered the words no traveler wants to hear: “Come with us.”        The customs officials “handed me off to a fleet of waiting agents,” Cukier says, where they examined his passport and questioned him about being a reporter. Then they demanded that he put his computer on the table.        “Do you know there are things that are illegal to bring into the U.K.?” a female agent asked Cukier.        “Uh, yeah.... There are many things that are illegal to bring across borders-do you have in mind any thing in particular?” Cukier responded.        “Illegal drugs, fire arms, bomb making materials, lewd and obscene pornographic material....”
	“Illegal drugs, fire arms, bomb making materials, lewd and obscene pornographic material....”	That list should stop you cold. Notice the Brits are putting materials protected here in the United States into the same category as drug-running and terrorism. Although the FBI likes to trot out this same unholy triad anytime it makes a case against encryption, the feds haven’t called for computer scans at our borders. Yet.         KAFKA AT THE BORDER        At this point Cukier thought he was home free. No contraband was stashed in his gear. Then the female agent, eyeing his computer asked, “Does it have the Internet on it?”        This must be a trick question, right? Cukier says he paused, not quite knowing how to answer. He opted for accuracy: “I use the computer to access the Internet, yes.”        “Is there any pornography on it?” the agent asked.        It was at this point that Cukier did some mental gymnastics. How to answer? What are they expecting to hear?        He suddenly “gets it.” The customs cops are hunting porn on his hard drive. He tells them there is none.        “Do you mind if I check?” the female agent says, grabbing his computer without waiting for an answer. “I’m just going to hook it up over there and scan the hard drive...”        But the search is stopped before it begins. Cukier is carrying an Apple Powerbook; British porn-hunters are only set up to scan Windows machines.
	Cukier is carrying an Apple Powerbook; British porn-hunters are only set up to scan Windows machines.	“From seeing my personal privacy ripped out from under me with a computer-enema to an immediate about-face and witnessing my oppressors flounder in the pap of their own incompetence was just too much to bear,” Cukier says. He seized the offensive.         REPORTER MODE        Cukier began peppering the flustered customs agent with questions.        “Do you catch a lot?”        “Sometimes.”        “What’s the fine? The penalty?”        Here Cukier says the agent became uncomfortable. ” “It depends. Every case is different. It depends what they have.”        “What about if I had encryption — do you check for that too?” Cukier asked.         “Huh?! I don’t know about that....”        “You don’t know what cryptography is?”        “No. Thank you, you can go now,” she said.        His computer safe from intrusion, Cukier now began to ruminate on the experience. He says the heart of the experience is that the U.K. government was looking to cuff him for what amounts to a “thought crime.”
	Scanning one’s computer is paramount to search and seizure of one’s intellectual property	“Scanning one’s computer is paramount to search and seizure of one’s intellectual property,” he says.        Other questions go unasked and unanswered. What if they found subversive literature about the proper role of government authority in civil society? Are business executives with confidential bids or marketing plans willing to have their data inspected under the umbrella of public safety from porn?        Who knows what is done with the scanned material, whether or not any “illegal” material is found?         PROFILES ARE US        A spokesman at the British embassy in Washington confirmed that such searches take place, but no details were given. People are chosen for such scans if they fit a “particular profile,” the spokesman said.        Now, that’s another red-flag phrase. Several months ago the White House approved a plan in which airlines would start to flag certain passengers as potential terrorists simply based on a computerized “profile.” If you fit the profile, expect to be delayed and questioned by federal officials.        I’m afraid that this airline “profile” program is a foreshadowing of the British porn scan. Every law enforcement agency of our government believes it is in a death match with technology. Forever feeling that technology is outstripping the ability of the “good guys” to keep the “bad guys” in check, the government increasingly looks for ways of getting the upper hand.
	When this happens in the public safety wars, personal privacy is usually the first victim.	And when that happens in the public safety wars, personal privacy is usually the first victim. Encryption technology, the means to scramble private messages, is the feds’ biggest target.        They want everyone who scrambles a message to hand over the decoding keys to a government-approved agent for safe-keeping. If the cops need that key, they can get it without ever telling you. It’s sort of like dropping off the keys to your house with the local sheriff, just in case he needs to rifle through your underwear drawer when you’re not home.        Ironically, the closed circuit TV testimony that President Clinton gave Monday was protected by uncrackable military-grade encryption technology.        So next time you get weary of hearing someone rant and rave about how we have to protect privacy and the First Amendment in cyberspace, be thankful there’s still a battle left to fight. And be thankful you don’t have to submit to a computer scan when coming back from an overseas vacation. Yet.