Take Big Brother on Vacation with You

An anonymous reader writes "Book a flight or a rental car, and that trip and your companions' names, where you stay, what you eat, your bed size preference, in-room movie preference, and just about anything else you get a receipt for is etched in stone."

Comments

Fingerprints

[rf0]

Yes there is lots of detail that is stored about you, and yes it can be used to work out if you were a threat. However surely much of the same information could be found by people digging through your garbage, following you home from work etc...

The point I'm trying to make is that there is more information around that people realise. My supermarket know what I bought. Does that mean if the goverment saw that I never bought pork it means I'm Jewish or does it mean that I just don't like it?

As with everything its the analysis that can be worrying which can lead to the wrong conclusion

Rus

convinence

[dhuv]

I heard a guy from accenture talk about things like this and how it is possible with .net. He said if you want the convinence of companies to do things for you then you will have to give out information. You arent forced to give out that information if you do not want. There are options with everything. If buying some product requires you to give out your info then dont buy it and loose the convinence that it gives or use a competitive product which doesnt require your info.

Six Degrees of Seperation

[AndroidCat]

You're linked to a terrorist. Sorry, it's true. Come with us.

Of course, through six degrees of seperation, you're supposed to be linked with everyone on the planet. (I question that, but without a traceroute for people, who knows?) My own link with terrorists is shorter than six. I once had some copies made at copy shop downtown Toronto. It turned out they were forging documents for terrorists.

Chilling coincidence. But what happens when programs start grinding a large amount of data and flagging any other coincidences? Perhaps I once slept in the same hotel on the same night as someone who is a friend of someone who might be a terrorist.. (You see how quickly you can march through those six degrees.) I have nothing to hide, but vaccum cleaner information gathering and processing bears watching -- Because we are all linked to a terrorist.

How long before retaliation?

[Fritz Benwalla]

My problem with this system is that there are some many variables that are under human control, changeable by casual users.

So eventually this data is routinely collected and analyzed, and eventually people start having an image of what makes up their "threat score" or what really sends up red flags and gets your luggage torn apart every time you fly.

How long will it be before I encounter a rude airline desk attendant or hotel employee, and make a perfectly valid complaint about them - and they retaliate by changing my check-in data in subtle ways to make sure I am harassed every time I travel? Hard to do in credit systems, much easier to do in ridiculously insecure hotel systems, and it might even be as simple as changing the codes of movies I ordered in my hotel room, or my meal preference on a flight.

The government is making more and more information critical to their decisions on national security, with no understanding of the security of the data itself.

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Think you have nothing to hide?

[TarPitt]

Personal information is very useful as an adjunct to any sort of hostile interrogation.

This is well known in military circles, as discussed in a Slashdot story:

Suppose the following scenario: you are kidnapped, taken to a small room and tortured, then someone asks you for classified information, or to betray your country, or to do something that every fiber in your being resists. Then that person proceeds to enumerate the names, ages, addresses, and medical conditions of your family members. Perhaps they include a bit of data on where they go out to eat, or where they work, of if there's an alarm system on their house. They don't have to say where they got the data, the very fact that they have it at all could lead you to believe that they have much, much more of it. Most military members have family somewhere that doesn't live on base (parents, siblings, etc.) Information is the most valuable tool an enemy can have.

Don't think that only military prosoners are subject to this tactic. Police interrogations use this as well.

And if you are sure you will NEVER be accused of a crime? Consider any civil legal action. The opposing attorney reveals they know all sorts of private facts about you. Will you continue to press your case, or will you settle on unfavorable terms?

Someone with the personal details of your life has a certain power over you, regardless of how exemplary a life you think you have led.