Arrgh! Today I overheard this female, very loud American colleague of mine loudly telling everybody how Belarus (according to her) checks the contents of peoples laptops when entering or leaving the country. She allegedly "knew" this because she had worked in a neighbouring country which will remain un-named. She went on about what a terribly oppressive dictatorship it is in Belarus although she hadn't actually visited.

I got SO irritated, as I visited Belarus, WITH a laptop and they seriously could not have cared less. This person is senior to me and very loud and aggressive personality, so I simply pointed out that whatever the norm it certainly didn't happen to me. (and I didn't see it happening to anyone else either).

Meanwhile this is exactly what happens in the USA Homeland Security’s laptop seizures: Interview with Rep. Sanchez - Salon.com
I'd love to go there to see some friends and buy cheap electronics, but I don't want to leave my fingerprint, be cross examined about my political views (apparently it's expanded to full-out Israel style security "interview") and I'd certainly not want to risk having my laptop sezed.

Every day I'm increasingly shocked at what is being revealed.

Don't know how to explain to non-IT people the absolutely mind-blowing possible outcomes of this new world order.
It is making possible a totalitarian dictatorship worthy of the antichrist predictions in the book of revelation. Not being able to buy and sell without the mark of the beast could be but a few decades away. I think the Snowdedn revelations indicate the birthing pangs of something worse than Orwell could ever have dreamed up. We will remember 2013 as the year when people woke up and did (or did not) make the right choice.

A FOIA request from the ACLU revealed that in the 18-month period beginning October 1, 2008, more than 6,600 people — roughly half of whom are American citizens — were subjected to electronic device searches at the border by DHS, all without a search warrant.