The Obama administration is trying to ease Canadians' concerns that by crossing the U.S. border they risk their right to privacy and the abandonment of their information to Big Brother databases.
"I know there's this myth that the United States is one big database. There absolutely is the myth - and that is not the case," Mary Ellen Callahan, the chief privacy officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said in an interview during a recent visit to Ottawa.
"One of the reasons I'm up here is to figure out how to better explain to the Canadians what's happening with their information, how they can find out about it, how they can seek redress, how they can seek inquiries. Because this myth is out there."
However, Canadians were reminded that U.S. border searches can be intrusive last week when, only hours after Ms. Callahan spoke in Ottawa, Toronto science fiction writer Peter Watts was stopped as he tried to leave the U.S. He later complained he was assaulted and arrested when he tried to ask border officers why they were searching his car.
Since the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection service, part of the Department of Homeland Security, has stepped up the use of its sweeping powers to check people entering and leaving the U.S., and search their possessions for illegal drugs, weapons, cash, and contraband high-tech equipment.
Mr. Watts had shown he was leaving the U.S., via the Blue Water Bridge to Sarnia, Ont., when he passed through the last toll booth before the bridge to Canada, said Chief Ron Smith, a spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Service.
Chief Smith said that Mr. Watts was arrested for failing to comply with the border officers' instructions, but insisted that "we would obviously be speaking to the driver before we start a search." The case was turned over to local prosecutors, he said.
Mr. Watts got his possessions back Saturday, except for a computer and flash drive, which he will get back later - and Chief Smith insisted that while border officers can look through such equipment for evidence of crimes, they didn't copy the information. "We're not allowed to keep the information off of anybody's personal computer or flash drive," he said. "We can look at it, but we can't maintain it."
Mr. Watts said in an interview yesterday that what happened to him was more akin to police brutality than Big Brother information gathering. "But I have to admit there is this crawly feeling - they now have access to all my financial data, and more importantly, all my e-mails."
In a world where people carry electronic devices and laptop computers with large amounts of information that may be personal or confidential, the potential for intrusion has raised concerns from American legislators and groups like defence lawyers, who fear solicitor-client privilege could be violated.
But rules on gathering information from laptops, published in August, also say the information cannot be copied or kept unless it's being used to investigate a crime, and the owner must be notified that the information was kept.
Before the Watts incident came to light, Ms. Callahan said she wanted to inform Canadians that there are safeguards in place about the use of seized information, and that Canadians can inquire about the records the Homeland Security Department has collected, make complaints, and correct mistakes, notably through the privacy section of the department's website.
"The public perception is that we're the Wild West," she said, "and that's absolutely not the case."
