U.S. Government Wants June Passenger Records

danwiz was one of several readers to point out the Associated Press story (carried here by the Boston Globe) which says that that the Transportation Security Administration plans to issue an emergency order requiring that U.S. airlines turn over passenger data for all June 2004 flights to the government within 40 days. "Such data may include credit card numbers, address, telephone number and meal request. Perhaps unrelated to terrorism, the data will be also tested to see if fraud or identity theft can be detected."

Comments

Re:What's a little profiling among friends?

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At any rate, though, I don't think that maintaining flexible profiles for high risk passengers is such a bad idea. Some passengers may be inconvenienced; however, if it will save lives, then I am quite willing for some people to end up having their feelings hurt.

Using this logic, you wouldn't mind a bit if I had you thrown in a straightjacket and padded rubber room at a high-security insane asylum, for the rest of your natural life. Nothing to do, no ability to interact with your surroundings or even see another human being, and only your feelings will be hurt. But I'm sure it will save the lives of others, as you will no longer be capable of even accidentally contributing to the death of another person. The only two reasons I'm going to do this are a) you said you were willing and b) your pseudonym contains the name "John," and several people with that name have been extremely violent in the past.

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I know this looks a lot like a troll--hell, maybe it is, and I just don't realize it--but the entire purpose of this post is to make it personal enough for you to understand why such things are wrong.

~UP