A funny op-ed piece that has made me come out of blogging retirement.
I found the federal agent in the living room, listening to the phone messages. When I asked how he hacked my PIN, he laughed. He said not to worry about what specific agency he worked for, because everything was all very fluid now.
American Airlines Admit Disclosure of Passenger Data
[New York Times, Registration Required.]
JetBlue, Northwest and now American: these are the carriers that have given out passenger data to the TSA. (Could United be next to admit such a thing?)
What is at stake here? Your home/business address, phone numbers, flights that you took with any of those carriers may now be in the hands of the government. (Hopefully they withheld your credit card numbers.)
Some people may not think it’s a big deal and they should be reminded how the TSA is testing it. According to the NY Times article, to identify “high risk passengers”, TSA’s system “will check things like credit reports and compare passenger names with those on government watch lists.” Forget to pay a $5 dollar credit card bill and you might not be allowed to get on your flight the next time you fly. Not only that, the airline worker at the counter may even know - through credit reports linked to the system - that your unpaid credit card purchase was for a steamy rated-R video rental the worker disapproves of personally. So the worker might go on to reason: “My oh my, this schmool is a pervert too! I am definitely not letting him (or her) on the plane.”
Maybe I am imagining a tad too much with the example above, but if we don’t assert our rights and let companies and government run amok, the situation described above could become reality before you know it.
If you care about protecting your privacy, select the companies you deal with carefully, whether they are airlines or free web mail. No company is fail-safe, but at least you can start by digging up a company’s privacy policies and see what they promise. And you should be able to tell when a company wants to take away all your privacy rights. Needless to say, avoid those companies like the plague. (While we are on the topic, Goggle Gmail is definitely one service to avoid if they don’t change their proposed privacy policy. Click here [eff.org's overview on Gmail] and here [J. Gilmore's take on Gmail's privacy policy draft] to see why.)
UPDATE: Reported by Wired News on what sort of data was shared with the TSA by AA: “The passenger records, which cover an unspecified week in June 2002, included credit card numbers, frequent-flier numbers, phone numbers, addresses, meal preferences and health data provided at the time of purchase, according to American Airlines spokeswoman Stacey Frantz.”
TSA eyes RFID boarding passes to track airline passengers [Computer World]
TSA wants to put wireless tags (commonly known as RFID) on boarding passes so they know where you are in the airport terminal at all times. There are already some concerns about possible privacy violations (i.e. “Why is Mr. Jacavi Modad spending so much time in the toilet? Send some guards to investigate, now!”)
And what will they think of next? RFID tags implanted into every infant?
TSA, the transportation security arm of the Homeland Security, is starting a “registered traveler” program and asking for volunteers. The marketing ploy of this program is: give TSA your iris-scan and biometric data, and you might have less hassle going through the airport.
As the National Consumer Coalition explains here, how much hassle is reduced by this program is unclear but one is giving up a lot for it.
The last time I went through the airport to take an international flight, I spent 50 minutes waiting in line for my bags to be X-rayed by TSA, 15 minutes to check in, another 15 minutes to go through security. The bulk of the time was waiting in line like everyone else to get my bags tortured by that horrible X-ray machine. (Yes I really mean tortured because the machine literally kicks the bag out after scanning.) And will being a TSA ‘registered traveler’ reduce the time in line for bag scanning? I doubt it: for safety, how can they avoid scanning any traveler’s bags?
Will FBI Decide Internet Configuration? [Dan Gillmor's journal]
The Justice Dept. wants to expand FBI’s wiretapping ability on the internet: the ability to snoop your mail, what you surf, your VOIP calls, etc. Of course, we can be smart and add encryption to protect our privacy on the net but as Gillmor argues if govt. also passes laws to take our encryption keys then we are losing a huge chunk of our freedom.
One more airline to boycott.
Northwest Lands in Hot Water[wired news]
In case you are wondering, the other no-no airlines are JetBlue (for committing the same offense as Northwest), and Delta (for agreeing to test CAPPS-II).
Finally one country has the guts to challenge the silly and draconian US-VISIT system: Brazil. As mentioned before, the new US-VISIT system is a database that captures all the biometric data (fingerprints etc.) of foreign visitors from certain countries, including Brazil. Visitors from the biggest country in South America do fall into the category because, reportedly, US considers Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay a “haven for Islamic terrorists” (NYTimes). So now, to be fair, Brazil has started fingerprinting only visitors from the U.S., which has Colin Powell and the state department crying foul. This fingerprinting spat has soured the diplomatic relationship between the two countries and will be a sticky point for future negotiations.
For more on the topic, click on the NY Times link below. (Free registration required.)
U.S. and Brazil Fingerprinting: Is It Getting Out of Hand?
U.S. Visitor Database Draws Fire [wired news]
So here it is: the Homeland Security moving along with their draconian implementation of the biometric database that will hold all foreign visitors’ pictures and fingerprints digitally.
Still, there are some sane Congress members questioning certain issues regarding the database: namely its impact on privacy, as well as Homeland Security’s failure to provide a cost estimate for the project.
Congress Expands FBI Spying Power [Wired News]
Wired writes, “A provision of an intelligence spending bill will expand the power of the FBI to subpoena business documents and transactions from a broader range of businesses — everything from libraries to travel agencies to eBay — without first seeking approval from a judge.”
Think about how this might affect you. To me, the most ironic part about the act is its name.
US embassy taking fingerprints for visas [Bangkok Post]
No, you are not a criminal, but just another foreigner applying for a U.S. visa. The War on Terror is now making its way to foreign shores, but at the price of privacy and among other things, is it worth it?
