Slashdot Mirror
American Airlines Is Third Company To Share Data
crem_d_genes writes "American Airlines has become the third U.S. airline to admit sharing passenger records with the government. They were proceeded in admissions by Northwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways. At the heart of the matter is the implementation of the of U.S. Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) use of the provisions known as CAPPS II. Some privacy advocates have expressed strong dissent with this plan. Some concerns have even been brought up in Congress, though for different reasons. The Department of Homeland Security has a site entitled CAPPS II: Myths and Facts."
The EU already does this with non-EU visitors.
As a visitor to an EU country you are required to give your passport to hotels. The hotels then send all that is send to interpol where it is stored for unknown amounts of time.
In the US you are only tracked when you enter and certain forms of internal transportation; in the EU you get all of thoses in addition to every time you want to sleep indoors.
This is totally wrong. I travel in Europe frequently and I am (almost) never asked my nationality/passport in hotels. There are a few exceptions though, but it is not the rule.
I'll do it for cheesy poofs.
> They were proceeded in admissions by...
Preceded, dammit.
So, you delete the data from the primary system, and eventually all the backup tapes that had the data get rotated back into use and overwritten (unless you think they maintain permanant archives of every backup they ever did).
It is possible.
They could have backups only going one month, or something like that. Then, they just shred/burn all the backups which are over a month old. They did say that the records would be kept for a short period. One month is fairly short.
I think this is called the "slippery slope" argument. It seems to get pulled out when people can't oppose the idea on its merits. Take an idea, extrapolate all the possible bad outcomes and then oppose the original idea.
Hmm, let's see, should we use needles in medicine? Needles can be used to give lifesaving inoculations. But wait, needles spread AIDs and other diseases. If we permit needles to be used we'll have an epidemic of disease across continents! Needles are not the right solution and should be opposed.
After September 11th there seemed to be a lot of Americans asking what they can do for their country. What sacrifice can we make to help? Remember WWII when there was rationing? It would seem that your average person is not willing to give up very much in this post 9/11 era.
I travel a LOT. For a period I went to London every week. I already felt like a stranger there as the Non EU passport line is always much longer. But hey if that is their system than so be it. My expectation of privacy is not very high when I am in a public place (like an airplane). Everyone on the plane knows where I am going. I have to write in a little card where I am staying. I don't feel like my privacy is being invaded that much extra by the mere fact that the information is stored on a computer.
It's called records management. Trust me, there are people who live for this sort of thing.
www.timcoleman.com is a total waste of your time. Never go there.
One thing that annoys me is this apparent belief that "Omigod! There's this new threat, terrorism!
Terrorism isn't a new threat in the USA, and it certainly ain't a new threat in the rest of the World. Leaving aside the flippant, UK-centric, remark that the USA was founded out of terrorism ("one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter", etc) the USA has had the Weathermen, the UNAbomber, various militias, etc. Even "Christian" terrorists have been murdering doctors and blowing up clinics.
(I was going to say how terrorism as a threat is overrated, but I can't think of a way to say it without cheapening the ordeal of everyone who's ever suffered in a terrorist attrocity. Suffice it to say that there is suffering caused by many, many other things that we choose to ignore)
Damn! Just caught your comment about Echelon. No more trans-atlantic flights for this bad boy!
This is where the serious fun begins.
Coincidentally I was fortunate to spend most of the '80s living in Oman (north, round Muscat, though I did occasionally get to visit Dhofar and stare at a distant border with the then Peoples Democratic Republic of Yemen).
I couldn't agree with you more. Creating martyrs never works; improving infrastructure (schools, hospitals, roads) usually works. Within 10 years Communist insurgency in Oman was limited to geurillas crossing the border from Yemen: the local Dhofaris had no sympathies for the insurgents.
Fascinating link, by the way.
This is where the serious fun begins.
Parent's link is a pack of lies
Too bad that little story was entirely made up. There are 260 million Americans, what makes you think the Government cares where YOU go or why (barring anything illegal)?
It's total ego-strokage to think you're important enough for anyone to care about you. The world does not revolve around kiddy socialists.
The GOVERNMENT won't store your information for extended lengths of time. Here's what they don't tell you:
Private companies ALREADY store your information, from MANY airlines, hotels, car rental agencies, etc. Because it's not a government agency, the same rules do not apply. Now, the government kicks back a nice little chunk of cash to the companies doing this (and yes, you are affected) and in exchange, gets full access to this data (which is not limited, is stored indefinitely, and has no federal control on what happens to it).
How do I know all of this?
Because I'm posting anonymously 100 feet from the computers that do it.