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EU Wants Air Passenger Data Collected

Posted by kdawson on from the you-can-leave-your-hat-on dept.

An anonymous reader sends news of the EU following in the footsteps of the US in that they are contemplating requiring all 27 member states to collect data on airline passengers and to retain it for up to 13 years. No centralized database would be created; instead states would be encouraged to store and to share their own data as needed. All states would have to pass enabling laws before the measure could come into effect. The rules would not apply to flights entirely within the EU. The proposal is part of an anti-terrorism package that also includes tighter laws to control hate speech and bomb-making instructions.

2 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Yes but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    If the new constitution, sorry, reform treaty is ratified we could be looking at Blair for EU president. If there's anything worse than Bush it's Bush's lapdog. And we'll have no say in it at all.

  2. Crapworks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Is there ANY evidence at all that if this stuff (privacy violations, ID checks, data collection, profiling etc) was in place in the US before 9/11 that it would have had any effect in stopping the attacks? Or would it have stopped the London Underground bombings? Or the Spanish train bombs? Or the Bali bombs? Or any of the other terrorist attacks of the past 50 years? You know, it almost looks as if you essentially answer your own questions.

    As are measures to make passports harder to forge (including measures requiring that the information on the passport be stored electronically as well as physically and that said information be digitally signed against tampering such that only the governments have the private keys to digitally sign the information) And the measures designed to stop bombs from being taken onto aircraft disguised as otherwise harmless looking objects. Sounds like you support privacy violations, ID checks, data collection, and profiling by way of RFID passports with biometric data and a range of methodologies to "stop bombs".

    the few people who DO care enough to stand up to the governments end up in secret jails that make Auschwitz look like Club Med Since you're being rated insightful, perhaps you could explain this gem for us lay people.