Originally Posted by Section 107

This may be undoubtedly true (how many other countries discuss, let alone publish, their numbers on searches?) but perspective is useful. The number of searches increased by almost 50% last fiscal year - a crisis in the making to be sure.

Now the perspective: there are close to 400,000,000 border crossings into the US each year.

The govt admits to searching ~30,000 electronic devices at the borders last fiscal year (both incoming and outgoing devices). The real number is probably closer to ~35,000 - so that is a rate of 0.0000875, not too much more likely than winning the Powerball Lottery.

At the 20 busiest international airports in the US - that would mean an average of 5 pax out of ~26,000 per day have a device searched. Put another way, you are more likely to get struck by lightning than have a device searched.