If you have a Twitter account, you may have “people” that follow you with what are suspiciously fake accounts. The tell-tale signs are standard: thousands of followers with barely any (if even one) tweets, tweets that contain lots of links …

The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups filed a lawsuit today challenging the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) policy allowing border agents to search laptops or other electronic devices at the border without reasonable suspicion.

The lawsuit was filed by the ACLU, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

U.S. federal officials have disclosed that agents at the U.S. border may seize a traveler’s laptop or other electronic devices with no limits on how long they can hold them and without any suspicion of wrongdoing.

The Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed the new policies that allow agents to search a laptop’s contents and share the information with other agencies and private organizations for language translation, data decryption or other reasons.

Travelers who do not need a visa to fly to the United States will have to answer questions about their health and criminal background under a new electronic system launched today.

Starting January 12, 2009, people traveling to the U.S. from the 27 visa waiver countries will be required to fill out an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) form online three days before departure.

A dark future tale by Cory Doctorow spoke of a Department of Homeland Security enforcing immigration laws, and others, with the help of Google. He may not have been far off the mark.