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Wednesday 27 June 2007

Too much information

I see that the US is still bullying the EU into disclosing air passengers' shoe sizes, favourite flavour of ice cream, and how many vegetables they eat on average every day. It would seem both parties are close to an agreement on sharing data about passengers on US-bound flights. I do understand the security concerns and so on and so forth, but does the US department of homeland security really think terrorists are stupid (well, they are, but bear with me)?

I mean, amongst information they plan to record and keep for 15 years (!) is your email address. If I was a terrorist I wouldn't buy my plane tickets using the same email address that I'd been using to correspond with my fellow terrorists. Would you?

I do think that it smacks of overkill, it is going to inconvenience many perfectly innocent travellers and, yes, I do feel that my privacy is violated by this. I don't understand why the US government needs to know which seat I occupied on board (in most cases, randomly-assigned by the airline anyway).

Pff, I'll probably get flagged up for being some sort of subversive influence now and anyone who reads my blog will be monitored by the CIA for the next 50 years.

3 comments:

Princesse Ecossaise said...

Ah shit...the CIA have been after me for years...

Anonymous said...

Upon entering the US two years ago, a friend of mine was asked if he had been guilty of any war crimes in WW2. He was 28.

Lis of the North said...

Hi princesse. Probably been after me for years already too. Sometimes on the phone to mum we say random words like President, Bin Ladan, bomb and secret plan. Tee hee.
Oh Despina, yes the endearing little "green card" questionnaire you fill out on the flight. Are you a Communist? (Think it needs updating here) Are you affiliated to any known terrorist organisations? Well if I was, I'd hardly blithely tick "yes".