Do they check your harddrive content before plane rides?

Question

I want to bring my portable hard drive with me onto the plane carry on because I am pretty sure the one I am on has usb slots for me to connect to. However, I do not know if the airport security checks these hard drives. do they? I don't want them going through my files. Do they have a right to?

Answer 1

They will check it physically, but not the content of it.

Answer 2

do you seriously think that they have time to sit and go through people's hard drives? ... all the security checks we have now make the queues unbelievably long ... if they started poring through hard drives no-one would ever be able to travel anywhere