Nothing to Declare?: Revisiting the (Proposed Wider) Laptop Ban

Months after the federal Department of Homeland Security banned large electronic items on U.S. bound flights originating in the Middle East, the agency is ready to double down in unsettling ways, with a proposed ban on laptops and tablets in cabins of U.S. bound flights from Europe. It hasn’t happened yet, but there’s a sense that the Trump government is quietly laying the groundwork for putting a ban in place.

That in itself would be bad enough: just One More Thing to be navigated (and tolerated) in the modern world. The original laptop ban, in March, and the one proposed now have a worthy rationale, intended to address the threat of explosives secreted in laptops and tablets by terrorist groups intent on creating mass-casualty events. ...

The nightmare's self-evident for business travelers; they'd be expected to object to anything that cuts into the ability to work on the long-haul flights between Europe and the United States — one of the leading global air-traffic corridors. ...

But DHS' proposed ban expansion may be just as upsetting for legions of other travelers: everyday people taking vacations or personal travel — people eager to document their travels for posterity (or for blogs, friends and family).

The phrase “nothing to declare” takes on another meaning when writers, journalists, photographers and other professionals in the travel industry find they can't work, or work as well — can't properly declare the wonders they've seen — because of the restrictions the new ban would impose. ...

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Image credits: Laptop computer at airport security station: Via CNN. Wander logo: © 2017 Jerrick Ventures LLC.