Are You Asking The Right Questions When You Travel With Electronic Devices?

Technology is wonderful. Laptop computers are getting lighter. Storage capacity on laptop computers, smart phones, USB keys and other electronic devices are up in the terabytes. You can travel with your electronic devices and no one will know you are not in the office.

What this means is that we can travel with vast amounts of personal data (and client documents) dating back to (or before) the purchase of an electronic device. From one electronic device, you (or the Canada Border Services Agency ("CBSA"), U.S. Customs and Border Protection ("US CBP") and other border officers) can access every email, text message, document, bank statement, health report, credit card statement, invoice, photo, contact, calendar entry, call history, voicemail message, to-do notation, book, magazine, internet search, app data, Facebook post, Twitter post, Netflix download history, stored password, and other information stored on your electronic device. If your electronic device has GPS, the geo-locations of your travels can be downloaded. Your electronic device may be cloud enabled and may synchronize with or open the door to data stored elsewhere (that is not on the electronic device with which you are travelling). Certain deleted data can be retrieved with relative ease.

A single handheld electronic device or laptop can store more than what used to be in luggage. The Customs Act is outdated and has not been modernized to reflect modern technology. Law-abiding citizens do not even think about the information on their electronic devices until the CBSA asks you to write your password down on a piece of paper and they disappear with your electronic device into a back room without you. As the CBSA officer walks away with all of your personal information, you finally ask the important question, "Can he/she do that"? And then the door shuts and you have no opportunity to stop the intrusive and invasive search of your electronic device.

Ask the right questions:

What is the CBSA's policy concerning examinations of electronic devices? Is there one? The answer is "yes", there is a policy that has not been posted on the CBSA website. However, LexSage Professional Corporation has posted CBSA Operational Bulletin PRG-2015-31 on its website. What is the CBSA's policy concerning examinations of solicitor-client privilege materials? Is there one? The answer is "yes", there is a short policy that has not been posted on the CBSA website. However, LexSage Professional...