Canada's Airlines Face a Privacy Dilemma

Interoperable writes "Canada's airlines are caught between a rock and a hard place in the face of new US regulations that require them to collect and hand over personal information about passengers. Handing over information regarding a passenger's name, gender and birth-date may violate Canadian privacy laws but merely flying over American airspace is conditional on doing exactly that. It seems that the long arms of the TSA are eager to grope at Canadians taking a shortcut to Toronto; no doubt to prevent any terrorist attacks on Lake Huron."

Comments

Re:Fuck you America ...

[KalAl]

Japan already fingerprints and photographs all foreigners when they enter the country.

Doesn't this violate...

[msauve]

Chaper 2, article 5 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation? I believe both the US and Canada are signatories. (actual document can be found here.

Each contracting State agrees that all aircraft of the other contracting States, being aircraft not engaged in scheduled international air services shall have the right, subject to the observance of the terms of this Convention, to make flights into or in transit non-stop across its territory and to make stops for non-traffic purposes without the necessity of obtaining prior permission, and subject to the right of the State flown over to require landing. Each contracting State nevertheless reserves the right, for reasons of safety of flight, to require aircraft desiring to proceed over regions which are inaccessible or without adequate air navigation facilities to follow prescribed routes, or to obtain special permission for such flights.

Now, I suppose the US could legitimately demand that any flights crossing its territory make a landing, hence subjecting passengers to inspection per Article 9(b-c), but that's only supposed to be available on a temporary basis.

What privacy?

[rastos1]

My country has a bill that puts limits on handling of my personal data. It was passed because the EU demands that. But it also demands that my bank passes info about my money transactions to USA. It would be pretty difficult to live without bank account and legally impossible to run a business without bank account. My privacy is screwed and I can't even vote to change that - short of convincing EU to challenge US.

We had stories about US demandingdata about air travelers before. Well, you don't have to travel by air. You can use cash and not wire transfers. You can live without internet if you don't want ISP to log who/when you talk to. You can have your privacy - if you live back in the woods. Thanks God, the war on terrorism works so well.

Re:US bullying and demanding other countries..

[Wyatt Earp]

Do you understand what a Third World country is?

"The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned or neutral with either capitalism and NATO." When the US pulls out of NATO and becomes neutral, then it will be a Third World country.

As for empire, the US is not imperial, it is a hegemony.

Re:US bullying and demanding other countries..

[jonbryce]

And it isn't that long ago in historical terms since the British Empire as a superpower fell apart.

Re:Fuck you America ...

[thetoadwarrior]

I am an American who opted to move to the UK and I was in no way asked to give up my citizenship and when I did get my citizenship I did so because I get to have my US and UK citizenship and now I have access to work anywhere in the US or EU which is rather handy! Perhaps things were different for you, I do know immigration laws change over time but for at least the last 10 years you could have both citizenships in the UK.

Being a writer you don't even need a work permit as long as you don't intend to do work outside of your field. http://www.skillclear.co.uk/permitfree.asp

I would have said the other places are probably the same but to be honest some countries are getting tired of their people being treated like shit when going to the US so they're returning the favour and I don't blame them to be honest.

Re:US bullying and demanding other countries..

[David Jao]

We used to criticize the Soviets for everything, be it rational or not. :)

BTW we criticized them for not letting people LEAVE their borders, not for controlling their own airspace and controlling border ingress.

Interestingly, we're already at that point: U.S. readies plan to ID departing visitors, Nov. 8. 2009.

Now, granted, it doesn't say that people will be prevented from leaving, but I suggest you think about it for a moment. What is the purpose of identifying people who leave, other than to control who leaves?