From Time magazine:
When Sebastien Boucher stopped at the U.S.-Canadian border, agents who inspected his laptop said they found files containing child pornography.
But when they tried to examine the images after his arrest, authorities were stymied by a password-protected encryption program.
Now Boucher is caught in a cyber-age quandary: The government wants him to give up the password, but doing so could violate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination by revealing the contents of the files.
Experts say the case could have broad computer privacy implications for people who cross borders with computers, PDAs and other devices that are subject to inspection.
Seems to me he SHOULD have had the encryption working prior to crossing the border , then they would have found nothing.
I keep certain files on my laptop encrypted also. If I should lose, or get my computer stolen, I don’t want my personal data to fall into the wrong hands. Identity theft is a costly thing to fix.
I’m certainly not in favor of child porn but I do want my own personal computer files to be private.
It appears to me to also be an invasion of privacy. I would think that if the computer does not contain a bomb, it should be of no concern to the border people.