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EU Preparing Vast Air Passenger Database

Posted by Soulskill on from the come-spy-the-friendly-skies dept.

jfruh writes: Despite privacy concerns and doubts over its usefulness, a plan to track passengers entering or leaving the European Union in a series of national databases is likely to become reality by the end of the year. Legislation working its way through the European Parliament will authorize European nations to set up databases of the sort already in use in the UK, and to share information with each other. All the EU parties except the Greens are in favor.

10 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. A database... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...of Vast Air Passengers? You mean Americans?

    1. Re:A database... by kevinbr · · Score: 2

      If I fly from France to Germany, I do not need a passport. There is no passport check. Just some form of ID when checking in. Voila.

    2. Re:A database... by prefec2 · · Score: 2

      In Germany we all carry a personal ID and have to provide an address to the state where we can be contacted (which is also used for elections). However, these information are only allowed to be used in specific cases. To protect us we have data protecton laws. This registration allows the state to autoregister you for elections, handle your taxes etc. However, recording data about my traveling is not necessary for the state and I doubt that it is compatible with EU treaty regulations and local constitutions. Courts already invalidated laws to collect mobile phone data and meta-data. Having an ID is quite practical. If the police stops you and you have an ID, they are only allowed to check it. If you have the time you can ask for the cops ID as well ;-)

  2. The greens... by courteaudotbiz · · Score: 3, Funny

    All the EU parties except the Greens are in favor

    In fact, the greens are against any form of transportation in the first place.

    1. Re:The greens... by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 2

      Actually, the Greens are one of the few parties to take privacy issues seriously. Same in a lot of EU countries. Too bad their ideas about the economy, society and even environmental policy are mostly rubbish.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    2. Re:The greens... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      Actually, the Greens are one of the few parties to take privacy issues seriously.

      In America, both the Greens and the Libertarians have strong stands. As a general rule, a party's advocacy of limits to government power, are inversely proportional to the likelihood of that party actually exercising that power. It is easy to be principled when you are powerless.

  3. A passengers DB by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So before that was done unofficially. Next, that will be official. The difference is that little by little people tend to get used to be traced everywhere (and this time again, the move is probably granted thanks to the terrorist attacks in Paris a monh ago)

    --
    Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
  4. Re:Ship. by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 2

    Ship is particularly convenient when going to countries like Swiss where there's no sea around.

    --
    Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
  5. Failure mode? by KlomDark · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Perhaps we are entering another species failure mode that we will have to solve for. Computers and the internet are great gifts to humanity, but it seems lately to have taken a bad turn. Instead of uplifting the human race, it's starting to look more like a trap.

    I've spent my whole life involved with computers and networking. Now at times I wonder if I will eventually regret my contributions to building this better mouse trap.

    I personally find that the risk of a dark totalitarian period that lasts for hundreds or thousands of years to be more threatening than any terrorist threat these dark systems purport to protect us from.

    Humanity needs to figure out how we want to use these new tools. All this surveillance mode machinery is not good. It just takes one evil dictator to get control of this to trap us in ten thousand years of darkness.

    It's a sad fearful reality we are marching towards these days.

    1. Re:Failure mode? by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

      the harder we work to avoid it

      you are already trackable, you know that right? this new EU law is only about formalizing / standardizing the process. you've already lost. do you really think that you could travel to a foreign country and back and be able to hide it?

      Unless a person completely divorces themselves from civilization, they are trackable. And there really isn't much to be done about it.

      And it can even be used to vindicate a person:

      http://www.thestar.com/news/cr...

      http://abc13.com/archive/94415...

      http://www.keyetv.com/news/fea...

      This one I thought particularly appropriate:

      http://blogs.villagevoice.com/...

      Since surveillance cameras are everywhere, if you are ever falsley accused, start handing out the subpoenas. In short, this guy was accused, arrested, and identified in a lineup as a "serial groper"

      But after going through identifiable records from his office, email records, bank transactions, credit cards transaction, and vendors, as well as a more old fashioned alibi in one accusation, charges were dismissed, because it was proven that the perp was not him.

      Which is not to say that I like being on camera, or being able to assemble my whereabouts all the time, all that much - but I damn well will use them to my advantage if need be.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.