Protecting Your Data and Your Rights
Video Transcript: I wanted to talk to you guys real quick about a phenomenon that you see from time to time, and this is something just to be aware of, and if it happens to you, you may want to talk to counsel, and that is laptop and device searches at the airport or at ports of entry and exit in customs. My name is Brian L. Jackson, an attorney in Oklahoma with Wirth Law Office.
Legally speaking, when you come and go from the secure part of the airport, you are subject to search and you are deemed to have consented to the search as a condition of being allowed to go into the secured areas. Now, typically the TSA agents will not expand that to include a data dump of your device, but that’s not to say that they can’t, because they can. It’s more common that this happens when you come and go through customs. So some things to know.
If you have anything sensitive on your device, like for example, client files, customer files, anything that you don’t want them to get their hands on, then you should not carry a device with that type of data on it through one of these security checkpoints or through a customs checkpoint, because if they ask you to dump it, you have to comply, because if you don’t, you’re going to get detained.
The other thing is, if this does happen to you where they do dump it, you probably want to talk to a lawyer, even if they go on about their business and don’t arrest you or anything like that. I mean, criminal charge, obviously if you have something illegal, they could charge you, but that’s not the only potential problem.
Once that data’s out, it’s out. And if there’s anything in there that could potentially open you up to some kind of liability to a third party, you probably want to talk to a lawyer right away and say, “Hey, this happened. What’s my exposure?” And one place you can find a good criminal defense lawyer in Tulsa to have that conversation is at makelaweasy.com, and we’d be happy to have that conversation and advise you.
