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This sort of thing is always mind boggling. If someone was going to try to smuggle data, why wouldn't they do it over the web?

This program just inconveniences the innocent while solving nothing.

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Surely they know this. They must. There are a few other reasons why a government might implement pointless security exercises like these, however.

A wiser head than mine once said that in order to understand a seemingly "pointless" bit of policy, try instead to understand what the natural result of that policy would be, and then the "point" would become apparent.

...But I'll stop there because next thing you know, we'll be talking politics at HN.

However, isn't there a saying "don't attribute to conspiracy that which could be attributed to stupidity" - not sure which applies in this case !

I don't believe that the point is IP. I remember when traveling Europe, a number of customs officials demanded that I turn on my laptop in order to prove that it was real. I think that the concern is that an electronic device could be used to conceal a bomb, or a similar tool.

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