Alarmism doesn't help anyone.
The EU is about to sell our most sensitive data to the US for visa-free travel
51–60 of 376 posts
Re: The EU is about to sell our most sensitive data to the US for visa-free travel
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
A visa allows you entry, an ESTA doesn't allow you entry but just says you're allowed to travel to the border to see if you'll be allowed entry or not. It's more for the airline than for you. If you have an ESTA and get refused entry, the airline isn't fined for bringing someone unauthorized to the border.
> A visa allows you entry That's incorrect, holding a B1/B2 US visa only allows you to arrive at the port of entry, the actual permission to enter the country is always left to the border officer interviewing you
It is legal to show up at a port of entry without any sort of anything. If all it allows you to do is show up at the port of entry it's a worthless scrap of paper.
Re: The EU is about to sell our most sensitive data to the US for visa-free travel
#53Romania and Bulgaria are in the EU and don't even benefit from visa-free travel to the US.
Re: The EU is about to sell our most sensitive data to the US for visa-free travel
#54This is a good thing for travellers.
In border security there are generally two camps, one that uses data and intelligence to go after the worst, large-scale criminal operations and networks, and generally makes travelling easy for the average person, and the other is like traditional cops using traditional tactics… the kind that will miss the person smuggling a kilogram of cocaine in their suitcase but will go after the old man who didn’t declare a pair of socks he bought on a trip. They generally make travel awful.
Support the intelligence-driven side of border security and reject the traditional cop camp.
Re: The EU is about to sell our most sensitive data to the US for visa-free travel
#55The point missing in the article is that, in order to enter the US, one needs to give the US Govt their photo and fingerprints ("biometric data") anyway. There are two options: visa-free with the biometric data passing on the wire (no hassle), or visa (a major hassle) and biometric data passing in the airport (a minor one). As a side note, the EU also collects photo and fingerprints from visitors now. Whereas in the…
> Whereas in the US you only need to go through fingerprinting only once
Once for each arrival.
Re: The EU is about to sell our most sensitive data to the US for visa-free travel
#56Re: The EU is about to sell our most sensitive data to the US for visa-free travel
#57I fail to understand the distinction between an ESTA and a visa to be honest. You need to do the paperwork in advance, pay, provide all sort of personal information, and it can be denied, and if approved only for a limited amount of time. Given that both the EU and the UK have reciprocated, it is a fiction that there exists some visa free travel between these 3 zones. And the more hassle you create, the less tourism…
A visa allows you entry, an ESTA doesn't allow you entry but just says you're allowed to travel to the border to see if you'll be allowed entry or not. It's more for the airline than for you. If you have an ESTA and get refused entry, the airline isn't fined for bringing someone unauthorized to the border.
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Re: The EU is about to sell our most sensitive data to the US for visa-free travel
#58As an aside, I always find it amusing that as a British person that have visited both the US and the Schengen area since the new entry/exit system. Both the US and EU have taken my biometric information (i.e fingerprints) but the UK government has not.
Re: The EU is about to sell our most sensitive data to the US for visa-free travel
#59Borders are generally insane. But they are especially rich coming from countries, like the US or many European countries that got most of their wealth from pillaging other territories.
Walls and steel doors are bad enough but it's a good thing we're not birds, or else the world would be covered with wire mesh.
Re: The EU is about to sell our most sensitive data to the US for visa-free travel
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's to validate that the fingerprints of the person arriving are the same as the fingerprints of the person who got the passport.
The fingerprints in the passport can't do that?
There's no fingerprints in the passport.
Edit apparently some but not all EU passports do, which is weird.