Tag: privacy

There’s an interesting report in today’s Telegraph — the one in England — that’s filed under Travel News. British airline passengers flying to the United States face having their personal information, including addresses, phone numbers and credit card details, stored for 15 years under under a proposed agreement between the US and the European Union. Details of millions of travellers from Europe, including addresses, phone numbers and credit card information, would be kept for the extended period by the US Department of Homeland Security, which also wants airlines to furnish the data up to 96 hours ahead of scheduled flight departures. The current requirement is for data to be supplied 72 hours before departure. Since the computer hardware employed to match that data against terrorist watch lists is only getting faster, I have to assume that the Americans want the extra day because those watch lists are getting that much longer and they need the extra processing time. Given what we already know about the efficacy of those lists, this thought doesn’t make me feel any safer. It does inspire me to stay home. I draw this evidence of the increasing American appetite for personal data to your attention because…