Israeli Airport Security Asks for Access to E-Mail, Haaretz Says

http://www.businessweek.com/news/20...curity-asks-for-access-to-e-mail-haaretz-says

Israel’s Shin-Bet security service has been asking some U.S. tourists with Arab names traveling through Ben-Gurion International Airport to show its agents their personal e-mail, Haaretz said.
Two U.S. citizens who refused to display their e-mail on laptop computers told the newspaper they were denied entry to Israel.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/20...curity-asks-for-access-to-e-mail-haaretz-says

wow, talk about going too far.

That's something I can't support!

There in Israel, they like to probe my emails. Here in the US, they like to grope my junk. All I keep hearing is that they are trying to protect the freedom of their citizens

Gee, which of my ten email accounts would you like to read, officer?

Exactly! Not a problem at all. Will show them my SPAM email

What's this email thing you're talking about, officer. Is that like AOL? I'd be happy to give you access to my Compuserve and AOL accounts. Gotta a phone line somewhere where I can plug in my modem?

Essentially this translates to Free Internet at TLV

Never been there, but Google tells me they already have free wifi.

Where do I plug my modem cord in for that free wifi?

Quelle horreur --- a BDS activist is subjected to additional scrutiny upon arrival in Israel. Nothing to see

This seems silly and proves nothing. I am all for strong security measures but what terrorist is going to show their ".terrorist" email address, when they can show any # of email address they may have. This is pushing things too far and I don't see it protecting anyone or any country.

Wow, that definitely seems a bit overboard...

... Oh, do you wanna see my super secret nefarious email account or will any do?

"..email account looks good, only Groupon offers and spam, no help the nice man with that large missle on his back"

Most American visitors to Israel don't have to worry about such treatment. It's largely reserved for those who are perceived to be Muslim, of Palestinian descent or those who are suspected of supporting Palestinian home rights. Here is a recent, disturbing account of what one might expect if one falls into either of these categories...
‘Do you feel more Arab or more American?’: Two women’s story of being detained and interrogated at Ben Gurion

Pretty well sums it up.

I will take the opposite view.

If you don't want to subject yourself to a country's screening procedures, don't go. Same goes with the US fingerprinting. Don't like it? Visit Canada instead.

Frankly, poking around someone's laptop/berry/iPad/iPhone would probably tell officials more about a person than any questions they could ask. This seems like a fairly contemporary screening method if you ask me. Is it really any worse than them looking through your laundry? Is email somehow more private than your undies?

While I know airport security is different than customs/immigration, I was once strip searched upon departure from TLV. (The young lady was nice...and gentle.) My next visit a few weeks later, I was traveling with two orthodox Jews (straight out of central casting). The screener who decided the level of search was the same as my prior visit. I told this to my companions, who took the young lady aside to speak with her...and I got a green stamp (light screening) this time.

It is part of the drill. Free passage of borders is not guaranteed.

I have tens of thousands of emails in my archive (I don't travel with them but I know others who do). No way for them to read them by just "poking around". Would you also say that I should allow them to install software on my laptop that automates the scan? How about them downloading the email to their big server "to speed up the search" - that's kind of like "uploading" my undies into their X-ray scanner, isn't it?

And what if China wants to do that?

China does do that.

I heard that. For different reasons, though. There is no way I'd take my own main laptop to China.

You raise some challenging questions. When crossing an international border, like it or not, travelers should not have any expectation of privacy. Government officials (in the US and around the world) generally have the right under local law to search and evaluate any materials you are trying to bring in to the country. Virtual, or otherwise.

Frankly, that we spend resources for little dogs to sniff for food in arrivals halls (not to diminish the threat of agricultural contamination), but then don't check the intellectual property taken out of the country astonishes me. (As to in-bound food, items discarded on the aircraft ultimately get co-mingled with other airport waste and get into our environment anyhow.)

To the extent you use the Internet in many countries, who knows how much information is being captured by government officials and private enterprises.

Beyond checking for "bad guys," the amount of intellectual property that crosses borders unchecked is to me significant. I remember some old lore told by my 8th grade social studies teacher about someone memorizing the plans for a factory in Europe, then re-drawing the plans on a boat coming to America...so it could be rebuilt in the States.

While I'm not advocating additional searches of technology assets crossing borders, assuming what is on your hard drive to be private when crossing an international border is faulty.

Australia does this if they think you are going to breach your visa conditions. Sure, refusal won't in and of itself lead to a refusal of entry but it ain't going to help you. I'm sure the US does similar, just not on racial grounds as Israel appears to.

I know that governments have the right, but it seems to me that can also be abused for harrassment or security theatre purposes.

Theatre?

Nowadays you don't have to even leave the country for data to leave the country. Similarly, bad guys don't have to carry incriminating emails in clear text on their laptops (or at all) when they cross the border.

and of course the various countries could take it a step further. Want to come into our country? Let us search your undies and your Facebook account, which happens to be in the cloud and not in a bag being carried across the border. Very slippery slope.

Encrypt Everything. Doesn't work for your junk or undies but goes a long way to cover your data.

If their security procedures are ethnicity based, or they don't want you to be transiting through their country, the simple solution is to avoid travel to that destination.

+1
For some reason, we always consider it to be our birthright to be accorded a welcome everywhere. About time we learned that we are not welcome everywhere, specially if our ethnicity/religion/color/name does not sit well with the hosts.

One just needs to read about the horror stories of sikhs - who are from India, have nothing to do Islam, but do wear turbans and have long flowing beards - at the hands of the TSA, to see how we compare to others. The bottom line is that we are as helpless in dictating what others should or should not be doing, as we are, in limiting the over-reach of our own screening agents. We just have to learn from other's experiences and go with the flow. I can only dream about the air travel being as simple as it was back in the old days.