What the U.S. knows about its visitors

[robotic]

interesting :D

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5390074.stm

The US has data on all passengers 15 minutes after take-off

Passenger profile

The Passenger Name Record (PNR) data that has been transferred up to now, falls into 34 overlapping fields, some of which contain very little information, for example the passenger's name, while others contain a lot, including the passenger's name (again), date of birth, sex, citizenship and so on.

Some of this information is collected when the ticket is booked, some of it at check-in, and some is information about the passenger's travelling history, which can be gleaned from the reservation database. Not all the fields will necessarily be filled in.

The data can be broken down into the following categories

* Information about the passenger: name; address; date of birth; passport number; citizenship; sex; country of residence; US visa number (plus date and place issued); address while in the US; telephone numbers; e-mail address; frequent flyer miles flown; address on frequent flyer account; the passenger's history of not showing up for flights

* Information about the booking of the ticket: date of reservation; date of intended travel; date ticket was issued; travel agency; travel agent; billing address; how the ticket was paid for (including credit card number); the ticket number; which organisation issued the ticket; whether the passenger bought the ticket at the airport just before the flight; whether the passenger has a definite booking or is on a waiting list; pricing information; a locator number on the computer reservation system; history of changes to the booking

* Information about the flight itself: seat number; seat information (eg aisle or window); bag tag numbers; one-way or return flight; special requests, such as requests for special meals, for a wheelchair, or help for an unaccompanied minor

* Information about the passenger's itinerary: other flights ticketed separately, or data on accommodation, car rental, rail reservations or tours.

* Information about other people: the group the passenger is travelling with; the person who booked the ticket

The CBP system has been built in such a way that some "sensitive" information is filtered out.

[raacluse]

I just happened to be reading a months old magazine article about some of the U.S. border screening programs, like the U.S. VISIT program. It screens people trying to enter the U.S. by collecting fingerprints at the points of entry and consolates.

Supposedly, the program has "prevented murders, pedophiles, drug traffickers, and immigration violators from crossing the border."

(Plenty of these kinds of people already exist in the U.S. Should they be worried about absorbing a few more?:biggrin: )

Meanwhile, the State Department is testing the addition of Radio Frequency Identification tags or chips in passports. (Apparently, some countries like Malaysia adopted this years ago.)

The authorities are swimming in so much data, you wonder if they can handle it efficiently.