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Europe Agrees To Send Airline Passenger Data To US
Qedward writes "The European Parliament has approved the controversial data transfer agreement, the bilateral PNR (passenger name register), with the US which requires European airlines to pass on passenger information, including name, contact details, payment data, itinerary, email and phone numbers to the Department of Homeland Security. Under the new agreement, PNR data will be 'depersonalized' after six months and would be moved into a 'dormant database' after five years. However the information would still be held for a further 15 years before being fully 'anonymized.'"
Why comply? What would the US do, deny entrance to all EU citizens?
Anyone care to explain this?
I would like to buy your rock.
thats creepy...
Yet another reason for me not to set foot on an aircraft bound for the United States.
Seriously, you had me sold at having to remove my shoes at check-in.
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
Commonly when EU says data is anonymized -- it does not mean what you think.
It is a nice sounding word used to quiet criticts. In practice data can be anonymized and later de-anonymized when needed.
Is this just for flights coming into the US?
Or all flights in EU?
Actually the US was going to Bar all Foreign Air lines from landing in to the US or Flying over US territory if they did not agree.
Because we get so much back, of course. Mostly implausibly deemed undesirables on the return plane, but hey, gift horses and all that.
First Europe sends banking info, passenger info, what will come? And there, for a moment, I believed Europe stopped being America's bitch. I'm voting... No wait, I don't know what or who I'm voting, because all parties I somewhat agree with agree with this shit. Fuck.
our new United States Homeland Security overlords... wait..WTF? lol
Fellow Europeans, brace yourselves for Commi Nazi (u deserve it). We spawned them into creation in the first place.
Vore for your local Pirate Party. I've heard they're at 12% in the polls in Germany. Let's repeat that in all our European countries. EU is not a state in the US.
...absolutely nothing.
... the German "constitution" (actually we dont have one, its called Grundgesetz, but never the less) and some public laws in Germany, I'm curious how the German government is thinking to get away with letting this pass.
In other words: German people have a government guaranty that something like this does never happen with their data. Go one "democratic" level up, and that's gone - cant happen.
I'm curious how far this is in line with the (interpreting of) the EU constitution (which is finally in place for a few years, but that took some kind of precaution to make sure it's vague enough here and there...).
If the pirate party jumps on this, things will likely go crazy.
All data, no matter how inane, once it enters the Defense department is kept verbatim forever. Any claims of altering this information after a period of time, is a complete lie.
This sounds like a complete and utter disaster.
We already saw how well the "No Fly Lists" worked. Those did nothing except horribly inconvenience the lives of many innocent people who happen to have the same names as terrorists.
This will just end up with random people with unlucky names getting the Jack Bauer treatment.
Pretty much the only option, if only because they didn't really make a statement about that crap yet and they're generally in favor of privacy.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
What did EU get in return? There seems to be much focus on what went to the US, but what went the other way - visa-free travel?
The US are paranoid and they are dragging every other country to their level. Someone somewhere has to stand up to these brow beaters . Guess it's not the European wimps.
This should be good news for conference facilities (hotels, etc) outside the USA, and - conversely - bad news for USA-based operations. When faced with the choice of where to locate a conference or other mass gathering of like spirits, it will be much less attractive to choose a location within the USA, simply because there will be fewer attendants willing to subject themselves to these laws. Since these laws seem to apply to USA air space as well - meaning that any flight which enters USA airspace has to have its passenger details registered with the USA authorities, even if the flight never lands in the USA - I guess Canada and Mexico are not good alternatives.
I foresee a booming business for Iceland-based conference facilities :-)
--frank[at]unternet.org
1. Good one. You're a stand up, right?
2. The idea was on the table, but the tourist lobby whined that then we can say good-bye to any kind of US tourists.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The article does not mention that they get data from flights "bound for the US". I would assume they get all flight data to and from Europe.
It's bilateral so we get all data from US flights, but that is not exactly a good deal as Europe does not have similar intelligence needs (being collection of countries) as opposed to US.
did they really have the choice ???
Agreeing is accepting to do something when you are asked "please", right ?
This is not agreement, this is bending under pressure, which is quite different.
Europe sends data about all financial transactions to the US. Does the US send data about all financial transactions to Europe?
Europe sends data about all airline passengers to the US. Does the US send data about all airline passengers to Europe?
Long ago I thought we were equal. Obviously, one of us is more equal than the other
... Now without paper or even needing to ask.
There is a worse problem concerning data exchange between the US and some of the EU countries. The exchange of criminal records are a lot more troubling than this. On one side it helps to undermine international organised crime, on the other side it is quite easy to get a police record in some countries. Just drive to fast and voila insta police profile. Get your own bike stolen, and tell it the police, and again, the americans get your data...
US Tourists are the kind that complain about nudity in old paintings, we can well do without them.
I've never seen so many anonymous posts...it's almost like you don't trust us. Them! I mean trust them.....
Yet another reason for me not to set foot on an aircraft bound for the United States.
Might make no difference... The way I'm reading the article, it says "requires European airlines to pass on passenger information", without going into detail about whether that's US-bound flights only, flights within the EU, flights from EU to outside EU (but not US), or even any flight, from/to anywhere, done by an EU-based airline company. It would be good if someone could clear this up.
Secondly I don't see why passenger data would need to be transferred to US control at all. It's really naive to assume that the US will handle such data as agreed. Good chance it will end up in multiple databases, and possibly used at will (since under US control), in violation of agreement. What safeguards has the EU to the contrary? Any?
Of course the US wants some persons not to board an airplane, why not arrange for the US to provide that watchlist to an EU-controlled organization that checks this watchlist against passenger data? Flag & possibly take action on matches, data for people that don't set off any flags then wouldn't need to be transferred to the US (that is, other than what's done already in US-bound flights).
All this reads to me as: EU doesn't care about its citizens' privacy & lets itself be bullied by the US. Annoying - the EU is not even 1 sovereign nation, it's a whole group of sovereign nations. Combined a bigger population than the US. Our politicians should really show some more backbone.
You kidding? That's the reason they come here in the first place!
Sure, they complain about it, but they come and look, so who cares if they're complaining? They have to complain to display their moral outrage while they take pictures for later use... and of course I mean they only want to document the debauchery and perversion.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The idea that this data will be discarded is some kind of joke. They'll just take a copy and anonymize the copy that EU is aware of. No country will ever follow such gentlemens agreements when they spend trillions capturing as much data as possible ON THEIR OWN CITIZENS and their own laws permit secret information gathering on foreigners. Treaties are not laws, there is no penalty to them for copying that data and putting it into the big database they've built.
Also if you look at US legislation they're passing, they want to make it easier for them to trawl all data held by US ISPs. Do you think they won't just trawl the credit card database the way they ALREADY do now?
I missed the part in the summary and in my cursory glance of the article where they said this was limited to passengers traveling to the U.S. I suspect this is the case (that only data for passengers to the U.S. is required), but the article never actually says that.
So I read the freaking article and I don't see what the U.S. is giving in return. It's all about what EU has to give up as far as info and such. I find it hard to believe this passed on the EU end without the U.S. sharing at least the same information. Is there an article somewhere that explains the whole deal? Or is this all there is?
Keep piling on the pressure to US businesses: each time I get an invite of a US business for a seminar, conference etc I email them back: sorry unable to attend as a result of TSA and government rules: despite the fact that I would like to visit, invest and holiday in your country, I am NOT willing to subject my family and myself to cancer, sexual harassment or criminal measures (giving bank details and fingerprinting? That is for criminals only!!). ...
I also mention that eg Israel does not use these scanners or TSA nazi tactics
As far as the US data go: they get the same treatment as the EU: new bank account and address (PO box) every year and lots and lots of third party payments ... deal with that bitches.
We, the free people, can win this, but we need to stick together and we need more leverage: what we need is a new religion, based upon freedom, privacy and respect a religion that requires third party payments for all payments and that forbids fingerprinting or harassment/invasion of privacy ... all I need now is a cool name and then we need to get some puppets to push for recognition of this religion ... (if scientology can do this, so can we!)
Most americans will be quite happy with just seeing the Grand Canyon and Hawaii, once in their lifetime, in clear contrast with Europeans that make it one of their biggest achievements stepping on each continent and seeing a bit of each of the now 27 countries in the EU.
At least most of us can name more than half the EU states. Can't imagine Americans being able to name more than 10 of theirs.
UNIX was not designed to stop you from doing stupid things, because that would also stop you from doing clever ones.
This reminds me of the David and Goliath story. Currently I am waiting for David to appear. Then tits up for the bullies.
Most people coming to the USA on holiday to see Mickey Mouse won't care. They really won't spend too long thinking about it, and it won't bother them too much. They trust the US government. They've already bought into the American Dream, they are coming for their holidays because they believe the USA is a wonderful place. The thing that will really bother these people will be if they feel unduly harrassed entering the country by customs etc.
The second large group coming to the USA will be business people, and they will be pragmatic: they will put up with the hassle and the sharing of information if it wins their company business.
I think only a small minority of people will object: those that can are sufficiently bothered and are able to take their business elsewhere (can find a US equivalent to work with) or will want to holiday elsewhere because they are unhappy with this information sharing. I don't think this is a large group of people. I suppose the important question is whether their loss to the USA is important to the well being of the USA.
It's a shame that the majority of Pirate Parties are run by people with no political acumen. Unless they grow up quickly, they will never be more than a single issue party. The German PP for instance seems to be torn by scandal and internal conflict. When pressed on national television their spokesman had to admit that his party had no position on the situation in Syria.
Here in the Netherlands the only noteworthy thing the PP has done in the past three years is putting up a Pirate Bay proxy. If this post comes across as bitter, it's because I feel foolish for having voted for a small activist group that has disguised itself as a political party.
Why is the USA trying to turn the whole world into a totalitarian state?
If their own citizens don't rebel in a civil war soon then I hope the rest of the world will invade this upstart and knock them out of the picture.
You mean like, say, your companies?
When I look around myself, look at our companies and how they're run, I guess we have less to fear from China than the US. Money ain't everything here, and the Chinese don't have much to offer except money.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Well at least on the email front, I may not supply my legitimate one.
...
... I will never go, if I have the option
On the other hand, all they have to do is identify me, match that the email I supplied is not my proper one and flag me
damned if you do
Screw it
Why should I? Salaries are low, at least if compared to my country (Sweden), they don't have a decent welfare and healthcare system, they're full of immigrants from the third world and their women are usually fat and ugly.
It's so funny to see a country where the government is so obsessed with security issues, while the average income is only 35K per year. It's like a factory worker who is concerned about inflation in the prices of yachts.
Yanks contribute countless millions of euros a year to your collapsing economy though. :)
It also applies to Canada and Mexico. The US gets your data if you travel to either from the EU, regardless of whether you fly over the US or not.
This is a renegotiation of the July 2007 agreement that the EU send passenger flight data to the US. Under the new agreement, the US 'should' share 'information about terrorism and serious transnational crime that results from the analysis of PNR data by non-EU countries' with Europol.
To be fair, I'd have a hard time finding most of the US states on a US map either. California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Nevada, Florida, Texas, ok, they're easy, either due to shape or location, but I guess I'd have a hard time pinpointing, say, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming or Nevada. That rectangular states in the middle west just all look the same to me.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
> spokesman had to admit that his party had no position on the situation in Syria.
>
??? Ofcourse they do not have a posistion about Syria, Pirat Party is about keeping our freedom. It has nothing to do about the issues going on in Syria.
Look at the other parties, and you will see that they really do not have a real standpoint regarding Syria either. They are basically also a one issue party, but they been in the game so long, that they know they have to make a general statement (without much afterthought) about any topic that might popup.
Isn't a single issue party exactly what you want if you want something done about a single issue?
> The German PP for instance seems to be torn by scandal and internal conflict.
And you say they have no political acumen? That's pretty much what the "regular" parties do.
Well, no one (who isn't an asshole) is going to hand you a blank map of the US and expect you to fill it out, anyway. Rote memorization probably isn't necessary.
Using money from _their_ collapsing economy :)
And yet, by voting for them we force the more established political parties to put privacy on their agenda's as well, instead of shamelessly sucking the USA cock whenever it's held in front of their faces.
Besides, as a fellow Dutchman...are *any* of the other parties at the moment worth putting a vote in? They're either corrupt, inept, hopelessly ideological to the point of delusion...or all of the above.
Might as well go with the one that shares some important values.
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
The US intervened in Serbia because Bill was in the shit with Hillary and her price (as specified by her liberal friends) was "do something".
Is this all passenger data or just trips to USA? If it is just trips to the USA it is not asking for much more than you fill in on the ESTA any way. If it is all flights, then what business of the USA is it if I fly from Leeds to London or Paris?
I remember when we all derided GWB for not knowing who was in charge of Pakistan. It would be hypocritical for me to let a similar level of ignorance slide from a political ally. If you aren't up to to discussing the news of the day within your party then you're not fit to serve on a city council, let alone serving in the parliament of a civilized country.
You're free to disagree but I hold the people who I vote for to a higher standard.
China has threatened not to fly to Euroland if it has to pay their green fuel tax.
Maybe Uncle Sam has agreed to that tax as a Quid Pro Quo?
Time will tell...
It's a shame that the majority of Pirate Parties are run by people with no political acumen. Unless they grow up quickly, they will never be more than a single issue party.
That is by design. They focus on a few select issues where they are strong and no other party cares about, instead of saying something (not so wise) about everything. Read the original description of the Swedish Pirate party for more info on why this is a good idea.
I don't care IF they're a one-issue party. It's an important issue. No other party will get my vote until this erosion of privacy trend is stopped and reversed.
Sadly, conferences do not contribute a diddly squat percentage of the US annual GDP, so your point is rather short-sighted.
An old-timer with old-timey ideas.
Not just those going to/from USA...
Also, the safeguard offered to depersonalize the data isn't worth the paper it's signed on... it's electronic info... and as we all know here, it's very easy to make copies of it. The Three Letter Agencies will be having wet dreams over this data and will insist on handling it themselves, thus being able to preserve the personal data in their own databases.
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
What a nice girl EU...now pull your pants down and bend over.
Fuck this. Fuck the non-violent protests. Fuck it all. It just may be time for an ARMED revolution.
Count yourself lucky that your constitution gives you that right. That's just about the only thing you lot have going for you right now.
I really don't like the direction the US is headed and fear returning to the States for a visit. As much as the Middle East is mucked up there are something things here I can tolerate better than I would if they were perpetrated by the US Govt.
The US DHS get my details and my fingerprints when I go through immigration so what's wrong with them getting that stuff 10 hours earlier?
As others have pointed out, it's not clear that they won't be getting this information even if you're not going anywhere near the US.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Start your own party. In fact, I think the Pirate Party is all "Down With This Sort Of Thing!"
No vote is wasted, and never believe anybody who tells you otherwise. That's how they keep winning.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
The TFA is unclear, and the article here on Slashdot makes it seem like all flights will be shared with the US, not just flights going to the US. Is this true? If someone flies from Manchester UK, to Paris, France, is this now to be shared with the US?
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
The Green Party didn't have a lot of acumen either when they started, not all that long ago, but these days they're a serious political party with members in various parliaments across Europe.
The German pirate party is very fast on discussing these general topics though. I am sure they already have a position on Syria.
Everyone in the party can take part in these discussions. That is why it takes some time until they have a position. Also, you have to give them credit for their openness and honesty. A politician from another party probably would just lie.
Personally I don't like this desire to have an opinion on everything. If they take part in the government, they will have a coalition partner. Then they can only accomplish some of their goals anyway. They should stick to the important stuff from the beginning, the rest is just distraction.
to my knowledge this covers flights to/from the us and flights through us airspace.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2759167&cid=39538673
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17764365
http://rt.com/news/eu-us-data-deal-491/
No it's not. In a state in the us you have more legal protections from the us régime. May be not for long but...
How can data that is itself used for identification be anonymised? and if contact details are truly disassociated with names and each other then what is the use in keeping them at all... does it really provide any statistical insight? why not just delete them after 6 months. It's hard not to think the US has less than honest reasons for intending to be big brother of the whole world. From the perspective of reading slashdot it's easy to view the US Gov as = FBI = MPAA + RIAA,
There is an old, old saying: know thine enemy.
The USA seems hell-bent on knowing everything about everyone.
I, for one, welcome our new American overlords.
The summary says nothing about travelling to the US. It just states traveler data from the EU.
Most americans will be quite happy with just seeing the Grand Canyon and Hawaii, once in their lifetime, in clear contrast with Europeans that make it one of their biggest achievements stepping on each continent and seeing a bit of each of the now 27 countries in the EU.
As a US citizen who has only been to Germany, Turkey, and Canada (yes, not much traveling, but some), many "Americans" don't care to travel outside of the US, and of those who would like to many simply cannot afford it.
At least most of us can name more than half the EU states. Can't imagine Americans being able to name more than 10 of theirs.
I hope you're not serious. This is second grade material, along with the capitals of each state.
A bit of reading on USians and passports/travel.
I guess I just don't understand the average European outrage at the US when it is their own politicians selling them out. We didn't cave, your politicians did.
I'd actually encourage a tit for tat retaliation against the US for two reasons 1) Make people in the US wake up and realize that this is going on (though most wouldn't care), and 2) push the US and EU further apart, which is long overdue.
I think using terrorism as a tool to go big brother on your citizens could be considered terrorism.
17434/11 - Agreement between the United States of America and the European Union on the use and transfer of Passenger Name Records to the United States Department of Homeland Security
Article 2 Item 1 Defines PNR as being data gathered for any flight, anywhere
Article 2 Items 2 and 3 Specify that carriers who must comply are those who operate flights to the USA even if they are incorporated and store their data - in Europe
The data in the Annex - mentioned in Article 2 Item 1 and Article 3 is as follows:
I have seen nothing in the agreement that limits the data gathering to flights to / from the USA
If anyone finds wording to contradict me please reply.
It is well-known European politicians have no backbone and comply to US demands
The US is a sovereign nation, they decide who they want as visitors. Nothing new to that.
Are the Americans overly paranoid and borderline crazy, yes. Nothing new to that.
Have we had to sign ESTA forms for years, yes. Nothing new to that.
So what's new here?
And what possible pressure could we put on the US?
Should we ask US visitors in EU a bunch of stupid privacy invading questions, no, that would be stupid.
Let's face it, the US decide who they want as visitors. Giving the Americans a taste of their own medicine is crazy. And risking further complications (ie. VISA) for visitors is bad business not just of the US, but also for the EU.
The only thing we can do, is to think twice about supporting such a distrusting nation, next time they want to invade somebody...
you should not make blanket statements like this. that's just fear mongering.
to summarize: as far as i can tell this pnr agreement covers flights to/from the us and flights through us airspace
Sorry but your references actually support what the OP said: the agreement covers all flights, not just flights from/to/over the US. The articles say that the agreement applies to airlines operating flights between any of the 27 EU countries and the US. Taken literally, this means it applies to all flights (including internal EU flights) operated by airlines that have flights from/to the US. I see nothing in the articles you mention that suggests a different meaning.
If I had mod points, I'd go for insightful, because the the backscatter scanners are doing a cavity search... no one said it had to be manual, and fair is fair.
PNR stands for Passenger Name Record.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_name_record
I would love to, but there are no active Pirate Party (or anything similar) i Poland :(
Too bad they don't have any serious policies then, but just say no to everything.
You can always try to convince everyone around you to vote... blank.
If airlines that do not fly to/from the US are exempt, someone should compile a list and post it ...
"I love my job, but I hate talking to people like you" (Freddie Mercury)
The Green Party didn't have a lot of acumen either when they started, not all that long ago, but these days they're a serious political party with members in various parliaments across Europe.
It's a 2-3% party in France, though, if upcoming elections are anything to go by. Maybe they'll do better in parliament a few weeks later, but I've my doubts. I've no figures at hand, but I suspect the greens don't fare much better in the UK or in the Czech Republic.
The thing to keep in mind is that EU parliament is a proportional election in a number of (all?) countries. This favors small parties, who they end up over represented. This can then give the wrong impression, especially to non-EU political commentators -- they invariably overrate the importance of the EU parliament.
(The EU strategic decision making actually goes on at the European Council; the details are worked out by its lapdog institution, the European Commission. At the very best, the Parliament is tossed a bone to argue about every now and then. When they vote "wrong" they're served the same text with a word changed here and there, until they vote "right". Much like EU citizens when they reject the EU treaties.)
Demand to know every excruciating detail of every person coming through the front door while people freely walk-in through the back. Want to see America without giving them your personal information? Just fly to Mexico and walk across the border into the US. It works for millions of people a year and it can work for you! The only caveat is that you might have a harder time getting back into Mexico from the US to catch your flight back home!
If this stops one Abdul the Knicker Bomber from flyiing and taking his explosive laden body to hell along with the other 200+ folks on his flight then it's done what's needed.
Abdul the KB will fly using a passport and ticket under the name of Dark$ide. Duh!
Let's see...... what issues do many political parties seem to have these days? Oh yeah! They one that gets people riled up to elect them.
That's not a stance, that's a sales pitch. I can't vote for a pirate party here (in the U.S..... hmmm... maybe someone could start one?) but I can say that deciding NOT to have a stance seems just fine to me. If foreign policy isn't their strong suit, so be it. They're representing good policies that matter.
-
At least most of us can name more than half the EU states. Can't imagine Americans being able to name more than 10 of theirs.
I hope you're not serious. This is second grade material, along with the capitals of each state.
A bit of reading on USians and passports/travel.
A nicely done analysis. However, the argument that Europe or Asia or just about any other place except for Canada and Mexico is more difficult to reach than to an European is mostly invalid. Getting from any European Capital to any place in Asia is as difficult as it is for Americans. Same for South America. Futhermore, Europeans tend to travel to the US quite extensively. I know I went there about 4 times for a total of 7 months.
I guess I just don't understand the average European outrage at the US when it is their own politicians selling them out. We didn't cave, your politicians did.
The rage is with the US for becoming a disgrace after 9/11. Everyone mourned the 9/11 tragedy. It still doesn't mean that it should be used as an excuse to bomb the hell out of everyone. The US policy is now ignorance for the sovereignty of other nations (like in this case). It's incredibly one-sided (and one could argue short-sighted) in the middle-east issues. It's lack of responsibility in some and meddling in others.
US soldiers, like any other soldiers screw-up on occasion around the world. However, the US is the only one that doesn't allow the soldiers to be responsible in front of the local justice system.
I'd actually encourage a tit for tat retaliation against the US for two reasons 1) Make people in the US wake up and realize that this is going on (though most wouldn't care), and 2) push the US and EU further apart, which is long overdue.
1) Fighting for civic liberties requires understanding them and that takes you to the major problem of education. The US education system is propagandistic on the "virtues" and "freedoms", but it does not really do a comparative assessment of all the options. It's just indoctrination, which leads to the two party system that is currently hurting you. Europeans being pissed at americans won't help your civil liberties issue, but it will create dangerous ripple effects in society.
2) I couldn't really say that the US and the EU are in any way close. They are about as developed, which means that the interactions are balanced, but not particularly close. The US is just as close with all the other countries of similar development (Japan, Australia, Canada, etc.).
UNIX was not designed to stop you from doing stupid things, because that would also stop you from doing clever ones.
Even with borders I could probably fill in about 50% correctly. I have an idea of the general area, but which one of the tiny specks in the upper right corner is Rhode Island and which one is Connecticut?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Last month as I was leaving the Czech Republic to return to the USA via JFK airport, I was "selected for enhanced screening" at the airport.
* I am a US citizen, born here.
* I have held a DOD security clearance.
* My finances are good and all above board.
* I was in the EU less than 2 weeks, on vacation, to multiple different countries.
I knew I was going to be scanned the day prior. My friends were able to get their boarding passes but I wasn't. The 3 tickets were purchases by the same person, so the fact that we were traveling together would mean it would be really easy to swap contraband between our bags to avoid added checks.
When I entered the security line, just outside the gate area ... seems only certain flights from Prague have to be screened ... I was given formal notice of the extra screening and a friendly, English speaking, 20-something, man started escorting me until the first screen was completed. My friends zoomed through the line and got on the plane. It was the normal in-front-of-all-passengers screens, with another man feeling me up. He found an amazing item that I was clearly hiding ... my chapstick. He also found that my right ball hangs a little lower than the left one. In a foreign country, it is amazing what we put up with.
BTW, all three of us had priority boarding passes and had check 1 bag each.
I'd removed my shoes during this first check ... only 3 people were required to remove their shoes that I saw of the completely full 250+ passengers. The xray and metal detector were standard stuff.
Next I and 2 other selectees were taken 10 feet behind a curtained area for extra checks. My carry-on was x-rayed again and they didn't find anything (since there wasn't anything to find) and I was groped again, by a different man. This time, he didn't feel my balls. The chapstick was moved to the carry-on after the last groping. It must have been disappointing for him. My shoes were not x-rayed the 2nd time.
I don't recall my butt cheeks being squeezed either time, but I do recall my entire legs, front, back, inseam and outside being checked. If I'd had something up my butt or under my belly flap, it would have made it in.
The entire trip, I only did the magnetometer scans, no stand-and-turn, privacy sucking scans anywhere.
I've been home about 3 weeks and still feel violated.
It was traumatic to me. I wish one of my friends had taken a video of the experience so I could convince myself that it wasn't as bad as I recall.
OTOH, my checked bag was not opened and those of my 2 travel buddies wasn't either. Neither of them were given extra screening. I did bring something back into the country for a friend, but I'd bought it on the plane - duty-free-ripoff. He needed a few gifts for friends and family.
Notes for airport screeners everywhere: ... there were many opportunities. ... i.e. feel someone up ... then you need to be more thorough. I could have had gels hidden under my feet, in my socks, in my butt and anus, and sharp things in my hair. Nobody felt my hair or head. I bet I could have a very sharp, 5 inch item built-into my eye glasses. The prohibition of knives is stupid.
* Being treated any differently than other passengers before the security screens are done is a tip off. I could have easily convinced one of my good friends to carry an item for me.
* the entire group flying together needs to be screened. Doing 1 person in a group is dumb. Even if they didn't agree to carry something for me, I could have easily slipped it into their bags at the hotel, in the taxi, while we waited in the airport for 3 hours
* Having 2 x-rays seems counter productive. If you are worried about a single person failure, have 2 different people, separated, reviewing the scans. Doing the same scan twice didn't find anything more.
* If you are going to properly search
Given the USA's track record on terrorists, I think it would be safer if THEY shared the data with the EU!
Someone who does not immediately see this is an unacceptable violation of the rights of travellers and the sovereignty of the EU member states should not be in the European Parliament.
Single-issue organizations can be immensely powerful in the narrow area they choose to focus on - just look at NRA in U.S. That strength comes precisely from their rejection of the need to have a position on every single political issue.
At least most of us can name more than half the EU states. Can't imagine Americans being able to name more than 10 of theirs.
Obig. XKCD
And this is wrong. All the program and agreement I know of , even PNR sharing, APIS, CAPS2 , and so forth, are *only* about USA starting, landing, or overflying carrier (aka if you go to canada or mexic and fly a few miles over the USA). It does not apply at all to any other flight, neither do we have the way or infrastructure at the moment to do to any other flights. Sure it could change but I think youa re misinterpreting the text. To me it clearly applies only to such flight with USA legs.
"(...) Send Airline Passenger Data To US" - it is US "freedom" and "democracy".
Recipes for USA bankrupt - http://tinypaste.com/0d66f dd = dollar deluge (printed in the infinity)
... the 409 parliamentarians who voted YES to this bill should be voted out of office.
(Does anyone have a list?)
That would be the ideal, though sadly, the majority of people don't
seem to care how these decisions affect them.
I stopped flying to the states ages ago. Now I will revise how often I fly within the EU.
Not sure if my job will be happy, but we can also do VC.