SECURITY…OR PARANOIA?

I am flying to Tasmania this evening for a two-day business trip.

Packing was a little stressful as usual, since I was requested to pack light as my traveling companion did not want to check our luggage and waste time at the carousel later since we had to be at a meeting directly after landing. But then he is a man and packing light comes easy for him.

Anyway, we were told to empty our laptops/netbooks of all personal content for the trip. The story going around is that someone got caught at the Australian airport security with nude photos of himself or something not very nice on his laptop computer. I don’t know what happened to him later, but it appeared to be nothing nice.

I was kind of horrified, not so much because I have anything incriminating on my netbook, but because it occurred to me that in order to discover the nasty stuff on the PCs, the Australian airport security would actually have switch on and check all the laptops being brought on board. What kind of time is that going to take? What kind of paranoid security is that?

I would actually understand if they were checking for some advanced software which would, I don’t know, activate something and take down buildings somewhere. But personal stuff?

Even if I happen to have an entire porn website downloaded on my netbook, what business is it of the Australian authorities? My netbook is, after all, mine. What did they think would happen, that I would connect my netbook up to some broadcasting facility and manage to corrupt a whole city of Australians with pictures and videos of naked people?

Someone kindly explain the whole logic to me.

My incredulous reaction sparked a discussion of airport security in various places. My travelling companion is a Filipino, and he has plenty of stories to tell. Anyway, I had already come to the conclusion that the US of A is no-man’s land for the next decade unless the company decides to send me there for any reason. At least I would not have to pay from my own pockets to be deported at the airport because some immigration officer did not like my accent. Australia may have to be added to my list if trends show that their airport security is going to rival the States in terms of discrimination and paranoia, which my colleagues have assured me to be the case.

Anyway, I am packed, and my netbook is clean. We will see if I come back this weekend with any further stories to tell.