Lately, more and more countries do random laptop check when we come in to or go out of that country. It happens more frequently now, especially in the US or UK. The border inspectors, directly or indirectly, have the rights to search the content of our laptop, and we are forced to open the laptop with our own password.
Putting a password will not help us, because we know the password. Unwillingness to give the password is not a choice, because we are legally bound to open the laptop.
Bruce Schneier wrote an article at Wired.com that give us a way to cross the border without ever showing the content of our laptop, without breaking the law. His proposed way is unique, because it uses existing widely-available Disc Encryption, such as BitLocker in Windows.
So, if you already uses BitLocker in your Windows machine, just follow these steps. The steps are easy, but a bit risky for me. So, do this at your own risk, okay? 
- Create a new user, with a random password. And I mean really really random password: just hit the keyboard randomly.
- Send or give the random password to someone that you can trust. Ensure that the password has been received and ensure that the person is really trustworthy.
- Erase, burn or shred any notes about the password. Forget the password, don’t even try to remember it.
- Do your travel as usual, and use your laptop just like always.
- Before reaching the border, delete the user that you usually use. At this point, you can’t use the computer anymore, because the only user that can use it has a random password that you don’t know. If asked, explain this condition to the inspector. Don’t lie, because you only create new problems. Just explain it as it is.
- When you are successfully cross the border, get your random password back from your trusted person.
Okay, all these steps does not guarantee that your laptop will not be confiscated by the inspector. It also does not guarantee that you will not be arrested or brought to court, and forced to tell who have the random password. Those are not the objective of all these exercise. The primary objective is to avoid unauthorized people to read our data. We might be forced to leave the country and our laptop is confiscated. But, upon reaching home, you will have more options in your hands: you can contact your lawyer, or your embassy, or any other option. Our data is safe, and we are not forced to do anything.
Of course, all those steps have their own risk. This “weird” action can bring suspicion from the inspector. So, if your laptop only contain unimportant information, just go thru the border without having to worry, because you don’t have anything to hide
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