Though I don’t know yet where visitors are coming from, a lot of traffic has come today to a new bill that would lay down rules for searches of laptops and electronic devices at the U.S. borders. And judging by the current vote, a lot of them like it. Here’s some background (with attitude) on the issue.

H.R. 6702 is a bill to “impose requirements with regard to border searches of digital electronic devices and digital storage media.” The bill intends to require border authorities to have reasonable suspicion about people whose laptops they search or whose data they copy.

The Department of Homeland Security would like Customs and Border Patrol Officers to be able to search and seize for any reason or no reason, and you can understand the desire for lattitude, but it’s a somewhat careless policy that would be an invitation for abuse. Why search a laptop when you have no good reason to do so?

People do have lower expectations of privacy at borders under current Supreme Court law because of the strong government interest in controlling the borders.

Let’s hear what you think, either in the comments below or on the page for H.R. 6702. Click below to vote, comment, learn more, or edit the wiki article about the bill.