Your Data and Devices: An Introduction
Over the weekend, the major blog Lifehacker, with hundreds of thousands of readers, issued an alarming post “Avoid Laptop Seizure On International Trips.” The post has prompted dozens and dozens of comments, some detailing strategies to follow, others decrying the policy.
As a writer with practical concerns, I take a somewhat different tack. I travel a lot internationally. I don’t worry that much about some official looking into my data — hey, maybe he’ll be intrigued enough to buy my future book. On the other hand, I worry a lot about losing access to my data, even for a month or two, and access to my writing tools.
In fact, this is a subject that has been much on my mind over the past six months, during which I took two major international trips. For one thing, I was absolutely paranoid about loss of my laptop as I travelled on a research trip in Europe. I never let it out of my sight, despite the inconvenience of toting it to conference dinners and cocktails with friends. I’ve developed two concerns about hardware: loss of the device itself and the inconvenience of protecting it from thieves, either professional or governmental.
On the data side, I was careful to backup all my new notes — and I had lots of them — to a portable hard disk and onto a USB memory stick. Back up to my online facilities — I use Mozy and Carbonite — was more problematic, as they require online access for my laptop, something that turned out to be difficult.
So, even though I backed up my data, I still ran the risk of losing it as I travelled back home, assuming I travelled through the US. You may be surprised at my decision: I simply skipped my usual, convenient route through the US, and instead took a bus from my coastal residence in Mexico over to Mexico City, which offers a direct flight to Europe. I wasn’t worried about the contents of my data. However, I was very concerned about access to my own data, if all of my digital devices were seized, without any reason, at the US border. I’m writing a book. I have deadlines. I’m not about to let some bureaucrat to derail my schedule.
Paranoid? Yes. Realistic. Also yes.
I write this as an introduction and background to a series of upcoming posts that have been long in preparation. They will deal with hardware issues. They will also deal with data issues.
Stay at home writers, happy with their desktop computer setup, can skip these posts, I guess. But if you ever step out of your front door with device and data in hand, perhaps you will benefit from reading these posts.
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