CDC Wants to Track Travelers

gearspring writes "According to Government Health IT the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants your email address, your mobile phone number, names of your traveling companions, your name, your address, and your emergency contacts name, address, and phone number. This information would be gathered by airlines, travel agents, and online reservation systems for all travelers. Their goal is to protect us in the event of a pandemic. The SARS crisis showed them the difficulty of notifying people that they may have been exposed to a disease. It is a noble goal, but couldn't they do this anonymously?"

Comments

Huh?

[general_re]

It is a noble goal, but couldn't they do this anonymously?

Anonymously? What, will they use a war-dialer to randomly notify people that someone somewhere was likely exposed to a new strain of bird flu? Maybe a really big phone tree?

Re:Huh?

[Plunky]

Nah, the point is io insure that if you're in an area that's suddenly become hot, you don't hop on a plane and bring it home without them knowing about it.

well surely its going to be a lot easier if an area suddenly becomes hot to either stop the flights from leaving, or quarantine them when they arrive..?

If the point is that you register at the airport with where you are going (or been), then when you have already come back and it turns out that the population at that location is dropping like flies (or birds :) then they can send the black helicopters to spray your house.

Anonymous Notification?

[HardCase]

It is a noble goal, but couldn't they do this anonymously?

It just begs the question, doesn't it?

For the greater good

[Venik]

Back home in the good old days KGB used to collect this sort of information. Just in case you get sick and they need to give you a shot.

Cutting paper

[ian_mackereth]

and they need to collect it electronically because, when they used to print it out on a piece of paper, those slips were often confiscated at check-in because terrorists could threaten to give someone a really nasty paper cut with it...

Whaaa?

[commodoresloat]

There goal is to protect us in the event of a pandemic.

Cool! And what about here goal?

Re:Anonymously? How?

[dogwelder99]

Battling a pandemic disease such as avian flu requires the ability to quickly track sick people and anyone they have contacted.

OK so far...

In response, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials have proposed new federal regulations to electronically track more than 600 million U.S. airline passengers a year traveling on more than 7 million flights through 67 hub airports.

Ummm... anyone care to do the geometric expansion on this one? CDC is gonna need one hell of a call center. Perhaps India could handle it. (Not a company in India. INDIA.)

CDC?

[Anonymous Coward]

So the Cult of the Dead Cow has gone from crackers to trackers.
Yes, it all makes perfect sense!

Re:CDC?

[bcmm]

It took that long? Last time the National Science Foundation was mentioned the Deus Ex "NSF" jokes started within the first five posts...

Is Slashdot more interested in games than hacking now? What's the world coming to?

Re:Unfortunately....

[Ohreally_factor]

If this thing becomes transmitible to the common house cat, killing and eating birds in
every city that has alley cats . We got ourselves a recipe for a bad situation .

We'll be safe. When (if ever) do you think was the last time a slashdotter got any pussy?

Re:CDC

[Anonymous Coward]

What's a Culf? Cow yoU'd Like to Fuck?

to answer the last question in the summary..

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes. There's this tattoo and chip combo thing you get called a "Mark". Report to the appropriate Loyalty Station to receive yours.

Sinc.,

The Beast