What the DHS Knows About You

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Posted by kdawson on Tuesday September 8, 2009 @12:13AM from the shirt-size-and-toothbrush-color dept.

Sherri Davidoff writes "Here's a real copy of an American citizen's DHS Travel Record, retrieved from the US Customs and Border Patrol's Automated Targeting System and obtained through a FOIA/Privacy Act request. The document reveals that the DHS is storing: the traveler's credit card number and expiration; IP addresses used to make Web travel reservations; hotel information and itinerary; full airline itinerary including flight numbers and seat numbers; phone numbers including business, home, and cell; and every frequent flyer and hotel number associated with the traveler, even ones not used for the specific reservation."

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Hush, citizen. by TheSpoom · 2009-09-08 00:20 · Score: 4, Insightful

Your full, unencrypted credit card information available in our logs to every DHS employee is necessary for us to fight the evil terrorists.

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It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
1. Re:Hush, citizen. by commodore64_love · 2009-09-08 00:31 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Technology has changed, therefore it's necessary for the Supreme Court to rethink some of its past decisions. "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects..." should apply to ALL papers/data even if it's not in the citizen's immediate possession. The government should not be able to obtain your personal credit cards numbers from a 3rd party without first getting a warrant from a judge.
  
  --
  "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
2. Re:Hush, citizen. by zach_the_lizard · 2009-09-08 00:40 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Citizen, you have dared to question the supreme legal, moral, and constitutional authority of our anti-terrorism methods. Not only that, but you have also exposed yourself as an EVIL anti-American communist socialist fascist islamist anti-war drug doing child molesting hippy. Our officers will arrive promptly to detain you. Have a nice day, DHS
  
  --
  SSC
3. Re:Hush, citizen. by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2009-09-08 00:40 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  More likely, we'll get some cryptofascist who calls himself a "strict constructionist" to tell us that, if the founding fathers wouldn't have recognized it on sight, it couldn't possibly be covered by the constitution.
And people bitch about British intrusiveness. by EWAdams · 2009-09-08 00:32 · Score: 3, Insightful

I'd rather have all the CCTV in the world than giving my entire identity, credit cards and all, to any DHS cocaine addict who happens to need a fix. At least CCTV can't read my passport and credit cards.

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I piss off bigots.
1. Re:And people bitch about British intrusiveness. by Cyberax · 2009-09-08 00:36 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  "At least CCTV can't read my passport and credit cards."
  Yet.
Re:Reminds me... by Cow+Jones · 2009-09-08 00:34 · Score: 4, Insightful

Yeah, I liked travelling to the US better when all I had to do was check the correct boxes on the amusing green form:
[x] I am not a terrorist
[x] I am not planning a child abduction in the US

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Ah, arrogance and stupidity, all in the same package. How efficient of you. -- Londo Mollari
Re:Reminds me... by nimbius · 2009-09-08 00:59 · Score: 4, Insightful

so we need to revise a few docs to say "bring me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses with cash, check, or money order for $10 us..."

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Good people go to bed earlier.
Re:Reminds me... by palegray.net · 2009-09-08 01:01 · Score: 4, Insightful

then canceling my card and getting a new one
Assuming U.S. authorities are using your credit card information to track behavioral patterns, that won't help you much if the card is issued by the same bank. Even banks in Switzerland are routinely turning over information on account holders these days.

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512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
Re:Question: How does any of this stop terrorism? by ralf1 · 2009-09-08 01:21 · Score: 4, Insightful

A better question might be 'How does ANYTHING that DHS does curb terrorism?'

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"Would you, could you, with a goat?" Dr Seuss
Re:Every time I do that I wonder... by snspdaarf · 2009-09-08 01:23 · Score: 4, Insightful

"No, Ma'am, the [Department of Homeland Security] do not have a sense of humor we are aware of."

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Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
Re:Other nuggets by nomadic · 2009-09-08 01:41 · Score: 4, Insightful

They have these crazy things in Europe called "trains" that connect city centres without having to hang around in an unfashionable suburb for a few hours waiting to be put into a metal tube. You don't even have to take your shoes off to get on them.

Silly Europeans always have such a skewed sense of geography. Newark to Tampa is 1,000 miles, exactly. It's a two and a half hour flight and a 20 hour train ride.
Well, if you don't have anything to hide... by CyberPhart · 2009-09-08 02:00 · Score: 5, Insightful

I've actually heard people respond to revelations like this by saying, "If you're not doing anything wrong, why are you worried about the government having this information?" I then ask "Really? Well, tell me all about your sex life..no?..are you engaging in some perversion?" or "How much money have you got in the bank?...Why won't you tell me? Are you laundering money for drug dealers?" I don't know which is worse, these clowns prying into our lives or our wonderful Congress sitting there and letting them do it. Big Brother is taking over faster than you doublethink.
Re:Question: How does any of this stop terrorism? by Skim123 · 2009-09-08 02:33 · Score: 4, Insightful

How does the Govt. having this information help the govt. stop terrorism? Anyone?
Their job is not to stop terrorism, but rather to make people "feel" safer.

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I could not justify my existence if I were a turkey farmer. Would I terminate myself? Undoubtably, yes.
Re:Reminds me... by interval1066 · 2009-09-08 02:33 · Score: 4, Insightful

Don't feel alone. I'm a US Citizen and I get the rude treatment whenever I want back in. Makes kinda wonder why I want back in so badly.

--
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
Re:Unfortunately, nothing new... by GodfatherofSoul · 2009-09-08 02:49 · Score: 3, Insightful

This is what irks me. The government is forbidden to keep databases of this type, so they contract it out (F U Milton Friedmann!) then make their queries against a database that isn't under their direct control. Such a total abuse of the law.

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I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Re:Reminds me... by Blrfl · 2009-09-08 02:55 · Score: 5, Insightful

...And don't think for a minute that the issuing bank doesn't keep records of which accounts were issued to what customers and when.