US Feds Can Seize Your Handheld

According to a report in The Washington Post, you might want to leave your laptop, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP and even your iPod at home before travelling to the USA.

The report states that Homeland Security measures in the War on Terror mean that, "any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form," including hard drives, flash drives, cellphones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes... can be retained and examined... for a reasonable period of time to review and analyze information."

In a slab of bureaucratic waffle that makes most game company CorproBollox seem crystal clear, such seizures can happen, "absent individualized suspicion" - e.g. without any grounds to think you might be planning terrorist action.

The US government responded via Customs Deputy Commissioner Jayson P Ahern who said that police and federal agencies have had the "authority to conduct routine searches and seizures at the border without probable cause or a warrant" for quite some time.

Our advice? If you don't want to lose your version of Grand Theft Auto: China Town Wars on the DS, leave it at home remember the rules to pen and paper Hangman.

^{Source: Washington Post}