US Custom officials have reportedly seized and searched over 1,500 electronic devices from international travelers, including laptops, thumb drives, cell phones and DVDs.
According to legal analyst Dan Rosenthal, officials also copied 282 files and transferred them to third-party agencies.
“Under current policy, CBP is not required to justify the searches,” Rosenthal wrote on the GamePolitics website.
“Interestingly, of those files, only four were justified under ‘national security’ concerns, and apparently encrypted files were sent to unknown agencies for ‘translation and decryption.'”
Rosenthal explained that the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the government, which prompted various agencies to release hundreds of documents.
“[The documents] reveal startling information about how much access—and how little oversight—agents have to your gaming laptops when you travel.
“Sooner or later, most gamers will face the dreaded scenario of having to leave their desktop PCs and consoles behind and suffer through the misery of modern air travel.”
