[OT] Customs

[Mark Smith]

Richmond, as you probably know, british customs & excise have all  
sorts of powers that might not generally be considered consistent  
with a modern, democratic civil society.

However, I travel a lot, and nearly always have my laptop with me,  
and neither I nor anyone I know has had their laptop seized by HMRC.   
So unless you know of some reason that they might take an unusual  
interest in you, you probably have nothing to worry about. Then  
again, they probably have the power to truss you up like a chicken  
and write rude words on your face with an indelible marker - being  
paranoid does not mean they're not out to get you :)

Best,

Mark


On 5 Jun 2009, at 18:53, Richmond Mathewson wrote:

> Before I hop on the plane to the conference I am trying to find out
> some information about British Customs and laptops.
>
> There has been persistent rumours that customs officers can seize
> laptops at random from entrants to Britain and hold them for
> examination as long as they want.
>
> Unfortunately my wife's laptop (which is what I intend to bring
> to Edinburgh) contains nothing "interesting"; notwithstanding that
> it would be "a right pain" if it were randomly seized by customs  
> and excise.
>
> Can anybody enlighten me on this; especially as I have been outwith
> the surveillance society since January.
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