The updated rules also make agents better inform you about what's going on. It's worth noting the searches are not standard practice: the DHS says that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has dealt with over 220 million travelers over the last 10 months, but only 1000 laptops were searched in that time.

I guess I'm OK with them searching laptops at the border (in principle), but it's ridiculous if they don't need to suspect anything to do so. Especially when innocent folks can have the tool they use to make a living snatched away for 30 days. Supposedly it's the terrorism and kiddy porn stuff they're after. I hope so, because personally, I gotta have my Divx movie rips on long haul flights.

"Keeping Americans safe in an increasingly digital world depends on our ability to lawfully screen materials entering the United States," DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a statement. "The new directives announced today strike the balance between respecting the civil liberties and privacy of all travelers while ensuring DHS can take the lawful actions necessary to secure our borders."

It's still a huge invasion of privacy, and thankfully The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit for more information on the searches earlier this week. As many do, it believes the DHS policy violates the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment against unreasonable search and seizure.

What do you think? Were you one of those 1000 searched since October last year?

[DHS via Wall Street Journal]

Update: Z Portal reiterates you don't have to fear border agents gawking at your junk: "The X-ray image generated does not create the detail that you describe because of the subjects' distance from the X-ray source and the movement of the vehicle through the X-ray beam. Additionally, the car is in the path of the X-ray beam so this also obscures the detail of the individual."

The first Z Portal is being set up at San Ysidro, a port of entry on the U.S.-Mexico border south of San Diego. Anyone who's "referred for a secondary inspection" will drive through a giant car wash that's not really a car wash, but a Z Portal. If you don't trust Customs' assurances no one will see your private piercings, you can actually have a border agent drive it through.

The purpose of the portal, obviously, is to find smuggled weapons, drugs and illegal immigrants that'll took our jerbs, while taking less time and posing less of a risk to border agents. Hey, it's better than a cavity search. But you still might wanna leave your laptop at home. [CNN]

• Mechanical stretching devices, which "employ weights or lines tied to other parts of the body such as the knee, to affect tension on the penis.

• Vacuum operating devices, "those employing a sealing principle in the area of the base of the penis and an evacuation mechanism to drop the atmospheric pressure around the penis, thereby affecting increased blood flow."

• Constrictive rings, which "constrict the base of the penis after erection has been achieved and cause the erection to be maintained by blocking the normal circulation of blood from the penis."

• Supportive devices, which "function as a splint or cradle in order to maintain a resemblance of turgidity."

Actually, it is hilarious. It almost gave me a browner. These points are part of their new guideline revision for "external penile rigidity devices." Seriously, what about those people with built-in inflatable devices? Can they travel? What's next on the list? Chocolate penis hats? Robotech Thrusters? Pink blowjob machines? Rubber penis builders?

We demand answers! This safety law's nonsense to achieve a false sense of security has to stop at once. [Star Telegram]

Stuart Romm boarded a plane in Las Vegas on February 1, 2004. When he got off the plane in British Columbia, Canada's Border Services Agency stopped Romm for questioning. After learning that Romm had a criminal background, Agent Keith Brown searched his laptop and discovered child porn sites in Romm's Internet history list. Canada then bundled Romm back onto a plane to Seattle, where US Customs agents had a chance to question him further.

We've heard of cases of 1-hour photo stores calling the police when they find people's pictures of their infants, semi-clothed, on vacation. Imagine the misunderstanding it will cause when customs agents find the same thing on your laptops—or possibly digital cameras as well. You may want to think twice about taking that shot of junior in the pool in Cancun. – Jason Chen

Can border agents search your laptop? Yes. [Ars Technica via ]