[ILUG-SOCIAL] Re: [ILUG] Just got back from a weekend in London (OT, but simultaneously intriguing and worrying)

[Rick Moen]

[Moved from ilug@ to social@]

Quoting DrKJam (drkjam at eircom.net):

> I was at Gatwick this evening coming back to Dublin. I'm going through
> Customs into the duty free section when the official checking my
> boarding pass tells me to look up at the camera. Hmmmmmm... I think -
> odd! And then as you are nearing the gate, another security guy asks for
> your boarding pass which has a nice little barcode on the back which he
> scans. As you walk past you notice that the picture of you taken earlier
> is up on screen.
> 
> How long has this been going on? I thought going to the US was a no-no
> but good ol' big brother across the water is linking together your name,
> pictures of you (plus I'm assuming credit card details from the airline
> you used etc, etc, etc).

That seems a very fair bet.  Between the commercial interests, national
governments, and spook agencies in question, it seems dead-certain that
all of them have decided that they positively adore accumulating data,
correlating it with everything on earth, and then squirreling it away
forever -- accurate or not, and accountable to nobody.

> Also questions come quickly such as how long do they store that data,
> how is it being stored, who else are they sharing it with, is anyone
> being told that they are doing it, were those people consulted etc etc
> etc etc

If you think some accountability can be introduced, by all means please
do press for it!

-- 
Cheers,      "Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first
Rick Moen     woman she meets, and then teams up with three complete strangers
rick at linuxmafia.com       to kill again."  -- Rick Polito's That TV Guy column,
              describing the movie _The Wizard of Oz_