Slashdot Mirror
What the DHS Knows About You
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."
Your full, unencrypted credit card information available in our logs to every DHS employee is necessary for us to fight the evil terrorists.
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
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
Ah, arrogance and stupidity, all in the same package. How efficient of you. -- Londo Mollari
"At least CCTV can't read my passport and credit cards."
Yet.
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..."
Good people go to bed earlier.
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.
512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
A better question might be 'How does ANYTHING that DHS does curb terrorism?'
"Would you, could you, with a goat?" Dr Seuss
"No, Ma'am, the [Department of Homeland Security] do not have a sense of humor we are aware of."
Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
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.
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.
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.
I could not justify my existence if I were a turkey farmer. Would I terminate myself? Undoubtably, yes.
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".'
...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.