Border Patrol Using Google
 

Here is the article, reproduced from Wired Magazine Issue 15.10. Link at bottom of page.

The New Weapon in the Border Guard Arsenal: the Dreaded Google Search

A Canadian psychotherapist named Andrew Feldmár was barred from the US last year after a border guard discovered he'd written an article about his experience taking LSD in the 1960s. In February, University of Minnesota historian Taner Akçam was detained for hours at the same border — by the Canadians — because Wikipedia described him (inaccurately) as a terrorist. The US government has at least four standard databases to check out wannabe visitors, but none of them contained the derogatory intel on Feldmár. He was damned by Google. It turns out that border officers are allowed to use what they call "open source information" — meaning any and all traces of you online, from Facebook and Flickr to flame wars. Although search engines aren't the first line of border defense (most computers in those little booths don't have Net connections), it's another story at "secondary processing": Get pulled out of line, and you might get Googled. Used to be, the scariest thing you could hear in an interrogation room was the sound of a guard putting on a rubber glove; now it's the quiet click of a mouse on the I'm Feeling Lucky button.

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So, what I understand this to mean is that, theoretically speaking of course, I could be crossing the border from USA to Canada or wherever and the border guy thinks I look suspicious with my Blue and Purple hair and one carryon and what not. He searches me on Google/MySpace/Wherever and sees my name in "rave" culture websites and my MySpace and something maybe Erowid/Lycium and whatever other "illicit/counter-culture" websites I may have posted or been connected to. The authorities could them decide to detain me and give me a hard time or just deny entry into a country or god only knows what else.

Now, I'm sure they say it's to fight terrorism and what not. Bullshit. A professor that posted an article in the 60's is not a terrorist.

What they're beginning to do is an attempt to destroy the various "sidicious (sp?) underground mostly young, mostly liberal groups/movements" that can span nations and even continents and originated within or now depend upon the Internet. They're making it dangerous to have any electronic affiliation with them and thus disband them and scatter them to the wind.
(Maybe that last paragraph was a little much)

Big Brother is watching.

Link to article on Wired.Com:
http://www.wired.com/politics/secur...15-10/st_google

just dont do/carry/sell/buy drugs and you have nothing to worry about why does no one realize this

so having the most common surname in the English language and the seventh most popular given name for a male is potentially advantageous?

People always have a difficult time believing what is real, as well as what to do. Just keep your nose clean, and don't be stupid. I'm not sure as to why that is such a difficult task to accomplish for most.

You can avoid using your full name wherever possible on the internet. If you have personal profiles out there, like on myspace or facebook, make them private. If you have a personal website keep it clean and avoid all mention of illegal activities. Many employers use Google too.

in a situation like the terminator movies, except its people using computers against other people, the information war has begun.

that is scary as hell. keeping your nose clean is all fine and well but using this type of technology to keep you from traveling is bullshit. they dont wan tyou to leave your country....definetely big brother at its finest and it really creeps me out. its like the chips that their beginning to put in our passports and using them inder human beings skin to keep us tracked. and there are ppl out there willing to do these things because theyre feeding us bullshit about how its good for us... WE FIGHTING TERRORISM. ok! count me out :)

lol wow yeah we're totally living under a Nazi regime here in the U.S. they wont even let us use the interne....oh wait. well they're censoring our blo.....nevermind. THEY'RE KILLING ANYONE WHO SPEAKS OUT AGAINST THEIR GOVERNM....shit, they're not doing that either.


what do any of you have to worry about? if you're doing illegal things, these are your consequences and you deserve every bit of hassle you get.

eat bullshit, much?

who cares if you have your name on myspace or facebook? just dont advertise what you do in your personal life

i'm not the one who's going to have problems crossing borders ;)

If you're worried about people looking you up, as the person who created this thread clearly is, that's the easiest way to avoid it. :p and also why i mentioned that if you have a personal profile to just keep it private for your friends to see. But I guess I wasn't clear enough and deserved a rude comment in return. :rolleyes:

lol the only thing that you will find if you look up my name is a lotta vagina...and it's not mine :p

just a hairy one :D

I'd agree with this part of your statement. Your constitution has been murdered the last 6 years.

how so?

While I agree that the u.s. govt. is pretty lame and shady. I don't blame them for using google. Why not? Its a public resource. If they were putting the haxxorz on your pc to find out what kind of stuff you have going on then I think it would be quite more fucked up and then you can compare it to the nazis. Really if you're not on, using or in possession of illegal items you shouldn't really have anything to worry about. Remember what goes on the web stays on the web. Its all pretty public. If you don't want authorities finding out about it, don't post it.

Doing drugs should have no bearing on your ability to travel freely. ESPECIALLY when you didn't get caught with them, someone just happened to read on your myspace that you smoke.

Just because I smoke pot, doesn't mean im stupid enough to try to sneak it across the border. Being a drug user doesn't make you an evil, dangerous person either.

see, you put it in terms of "doing drugs" i'm trying to put it in terms of "breaking the law" which, by doing drugs, you are doing.

this isn't about your bullshit hippie "WEED COMES FROM NATURE MAAAAAAAAAAAN" ideals or NORML meetings, its about what is currently law and the fact that if you are knowingly breaking said laws and should accept consequences for your actions if you feel the need to brag about it on your myspace and yell "LOL 4:20 SMOEK WEED EVERYDAY"

I have to agree with No Typical on this one. No matter what or how we feel about issues like drugs and immigration etc. the fact is the law is the law and we know about it, so if were posting things on the net then were just telling everyone that were breaking the law

My point is, what does doing drugs have to do with crossing the border.

I go to canada to go to events at which I spend money on food, gas, hotels, etc...

I never smuggled drugs in or out of the country nor do I plan to. So why should I not be allowed to leave my country because of something I may have SAID ONLINE, and not even been convicted of, especially because the crime is irrelevant to traveling.

they're just taking precautions.

my point is, again, its more to do with breaking the law than the drugs themselves.

no theyre not, its just a damn excuse for a big power trip

And my point is, once again, that drugs have nothing to do with traveling.

You want a different example? What if I said on my myspace page in a blog that I stole something from a convenience store? Would you say that because I "broke the law" and they found out about it, that I shouldn't be allowed to cross the border?

My point has nothing to do with the drugs part that you keep focusing on. My point is that minor crimes, especially ones you haven't been convicted of, should have no bearing on your ability to cross the border.

yes, because you are a criminal and not to be trusted with the basic human rights that the rest of us have.

small crimes lead to bigger crimes in many cases.