I recieved this update today from the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) in Dubai... (
courtesy of being registered with the FCO's 'LOCATE' service):
We have been advised that airports in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia now have in place a new rule regarding carrying electronic devices.
This rule applies to both departures and arrivals.
All electronic devices must now be submitted for checking before passengers reach the immigration section.
Electronic devices include:
- mobile phones with camera and memory card
- flash disks/ USB sticks
- external hard drives
- laptops and notebooks
- iPods, itouch and mp3 players with memory card
A special USB device will be inserted into the electronic devices that you are carrying. This device will scan the contents of your laptop/ phone etc and take a copy of all videos and picture files (e.g. jpg, bmp, avi files). The copied files will be recorded and stored on a main server at KSA.
All devices containing offensive material will be confiscated immediately. There will be no fines, and refusal will result in jail and deportation.
Laptops with pirated software's will also be confiscated.
This rule is already being applied at Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah Airports in the KSA
So, take head if you've got any dodgy pics of the wife / ex-wives / girlfriend(s) / housemaid(s) / naked goats / etc...
OKC
Ps. For those who might feel the need for it, I can recommend the following two programs (
depending upon your level of paranoia?!) :
Nb. Magic Folders is seemingly an Operating System based 'file system locking' program, therein if you take the harddisk out of your laptop you can see the folders on another laptop... but if the harddisk stays inside your laptop you can't see the folders at all (
and you can't even see that Magic Folders is running in the process list).