Absurdities of the day: who put those porn photos on your computer?

Ho Hum... I am reading via Drudge that Humma had some emails from Clinton on her private home computer that she shares with her husband.

Two comments:

One: She shares a computer with her husband? she uses his laptop or is she so old fashioned that she still uses a desktop computer? What, she can't afford her own private laptop?

Two: What was the FBI doing searching the hard drive of Wiener's computer? Yes, he is a slimeball pervert, but since when is texting dirty to a teenager age 15  a federal crime?

Does this mean half of the kids in high school will get the FBI confiscating their iPhones?

for that matter, why is the FBI investigating Brad Pitt for child abuse (of one of his teenaged children)? Is child abuse now a federal crime (as opposed to a local crime)?


TechRepublic on how you can break the law by using your computer.

Most Americans are aware of the protections afforded by the U.S. Constitution's fourth amendment against unreasonable searches and seizures. In general, this means that the government cannot search your person, home, vehicle, or computer without probable cause to believe that you've engaged in some criminal act. What many don't know is that there are quite a few circumstances that the Courts, over the years, have deemed to be exempt from this requirement. One of those occurs when you enter the United States at the border. In April 2008, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the right of Customs officers to search laptops and other digital devices at the border (the definition of which extends to any international airport when you are coming into the country) without probable cause or even the lesser standard of reasonable suspicion.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and other groups strongly disagree with the ruling. You can read more on the EFF Web site.

the reason for the law was to detect terrorists whose laptops contain information on building bombs etc. but now you can get into trouble if they find anything illegal...

And yes, that includes that P2P song you just downloaded.

and remember: Viruses can place porn on your computer without your knowing it

In January 2007, a substitute teacher in Norwich, CT, was convicted of four felony pornography charges, although she claimed the offending pictures were the result of pop-ups and that she did not knowingly access the Web sites in question. The conviction was set aside after forensics and security experts examined her hard drive and found the school's antivirus software was out of date and the computer had no anti-spyware, firewall, or pop-up blocking technology. The teacher ended up pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge.

no, laptops have no right to privacy...
which is a big worry for business travelers with confidential information on their laptops...

although at least one court says that might not be legal--

In one recent case in California, a federal court went against current trends, ruling that laptop searches were a serious invasion of privacy. “People keep all sorts of personal information on computers,” the court ruling said, citing diaries, personal letters, financial records, lawyers’ confidential client information and reporters’ notes on confidential sources. That court ruled, in that specific case, that “the correct standard requires that any border search of the information stored on a person’s electronic storage device be based, at a minimum, on a reasonable suspicion.”