Technology Takes a Vacation
By Gene Melchionne, Esq. Law Offices of Eugene S. Melchionne Waterbury, Connecticut
Going Mobile
Planning on taking some time off this year? There may be no better time. We know that filings are down so that means less work to do, right?( Said he, tongue planted firmly in cheek.) As you make more use of your technology, you can be freed to travel knowing that the electronic leash is firmly attached anyway. Besides, the NACBA Fall Workshop is going to Cuba this year and when will you ever get a chance to travel there in the future?
If anything, travel is easier than it has ever been. Fares are lower again and probably cheaper than ever before. Technology gives you that freedom to travel since digital communication is instantaneous. I run a virtual office, so many of my clients don’ t know if I am responding to their emails or voice mail from my desk, a courtroom, a NACBA Convention, or my boat.
I travel with a plethora of electronic devices; my iPhone, my iPad and my laptop. Some office data is on those devices, but I also access my office through a static IP number and private VPN. While I can operate with as little as only one of those devices, I am most comfortable having all three. Sometimes you just need a truck to do the hauling. 1
Summertime Blues
If you are traveling out of the country( again, anyone going to Cuba with the Fall Workshop?), leaving is simple. You go through a simple metal detector to make sure your devices are not disguised bombs, so you can’ t blow up the plane or boat. But getting back in might be another story. Customs has decided to randomly search electronic devices for content. If you present as someone suspicious( wearing that Dump Trump t-shirt?), plan on getting waylaid.
1 Steve Jobs: Tablets Are Cars. PCs Are Trucks. He famously once said“ When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks, because that ' s what you needed on the farm. But as vehicles started to be used in the urban centers, cars got more popular … PCs are going to be like trucks. They ' re still going to be around, they ' re still going to have a lot of value, but they ' re going to be used by one out of X people.”
Behind Blue Eyes
The good news is that the searches will be limited only to the data located on the device. 2 That means that if you keep your data in the cloud or have social media accounts or other online sources of info, the Border Guard cannot ask you for your passwords to access those online sources. My server located in my office is safe and the officer cannot use the VPN connection to access my server to see what I have there.
But what if you are like me and keep all of your email stored on your device? What if you spent part of your time overseas communicating with your clients or worse yet, violating the prime rule of vacation and actually drafted a document or performed some research on a client’ s matter and those files are located locally? A section of the directive allows Customs to make a copy of the storage on your device and access that copy. Or worse yet, if the device is protected by a passcode and the passcode is not provided to the officer, the device can be confiscated – meaning you lose access to your device until Customs is done with it- and you can be detained from entering the US even if you are a US Citizen. Yikes!
2 U. S. Customs and Border
Directive, January 4, 2018, Section 5.1.2
32 CONSUMER BANKRUPTCY JOURNAL Spring 2018 National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys