Amit Varia

49 days ago

Arnold v. USA

A recent ruling by the 9th Circuit is causing a shockwave in the tech community. I personally don’t find the ruling to be that shocking, but judge for yourself by reading the ruling.

In summary, the Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s ruling prohibiting border agents from searching the contents on a laptop. Technology and privacy buffs view the contents of the laptop to be an extension of a person’s memory, while the government views the contents as just documents inside a fancy briefcase. While I enjoy my privacy and the rights afforded to me by the Constitution, I would agree with the government that the hard drive is just a technological briefcase.

Ignoring the trite arguments for selective privacy, this issue roots back to the same question we have been faced with for the last several hundred years – do we abandon our rights for additional security?

Fans of Jefferson would quote – “A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both, and deserve neither.” Fans of the current administration would argue that the rules of war today can’t be compared to those during Jefferson’s time.

I’m not taking sides on this ruling, because this isn’t the ruling you should be debating. Argue the bigger picture; debate our liberty against our security.


  1. Alicson

    49 days ago

    Not exactly a briefcase though. While businessmen/women may carry personal journals, photos, etc. in their briefcase, briefcases are generally more work-centered in their personality, and general work-related or work-safe in their contents. A search of a hard drive is more like a search of someone’s entire home — personal photos, calendars, scrapbooks, diaries, old love letters, drafts of poems, odd drawings, kinky toys…

    If the harddrive is on a laptop that is provided by one’s workplace, for work use “only”, then it is arguable (though I despise it) that the company may have access to the contents of that harddrive just like a locked office or desk in their building.

    While it’s still (currently) a stretch to say that reading a person’s hard drive is like reading their mind/memories, it is inaccurate to consider a computer to be just another possession. The sheer scope of what we can do, access, store on a single computer goes way beyond the potentials of most briefcases. Physically, yes; a hard drive seems to be just another object/possession like a briefcase. Emotionally, however……

    Our judicial system should rethink a lot of things……
    among them: the concepts of law surrounding computers, intellectual property, internet/network privacy, etc…
    And just because something fits into a square hole, doesn’t make it a square.


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