Live data from Hacker News

The EU is about to sell our most sensitive data to the US for visa-free travel

edri.org

271–280 of 376 posts

Re: The EU is about to sell our most sensitive data to the US for visa-free travel

#271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention that to get around RealID with flights, you just have to pay $45 and you're good to go. Since we all know that bad actors don't have access to that sort of money...

Can you expand on this? How can you board a flight without realID for $45?

Have you been to an airport yet since it became mandatory? They actually have signs around stating it. I had similar thoughts as the GP about that.

Re: The EU is about to sell our most sensitive data to the US for visa-free travel

#272
post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in the EU you need to go through it both on every arrival and every departure. You absolutely don't. If you've done it once on your passport/ID you don't need to do it again. And infact there are fast track autonomous lanes that you can just scan your EU passport with biometric chip and fly through. (In theory, there's always idiots who don't realise they don't have it)

People without EU citizenship also enter EU. Recent changes to EES system have been a disaster, and as op has pointed out, people do have to scan their biometrics more than once coming from a non-EU country. In some cases even if you are a EU resident in case the airport has no specific queues.

> Recent changes to EES system have been a disaster

How ?

> People do have to scan their biometrics more than once coming from a non-EU country.

If the data hasn't had time to propagate then it's just a flag that you need to do it.

> In some cases even if you are a EU resident in case the airport has no specific queues.

Yes, if I arrive in Firenze airport there is maybe 2 people working on the border, if I'm in the Schengen, I don't even need to be checked. I'm not sure what you're talking about.

> People without EU citizenship also enter EU.

Clearly I'm not talking about these cases. You're not from the EU, you need to follow the rules. Sorry.

Re: The EU is about to sell our most sensitive data to the US for visa-free travel

#273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in the EU you need to go through it both on every arrival and every departure. You absolutely don't. If you've done it once on your passport/ID you don't need to do it again. And infact there are fast track autonomous lanes that you can just scan your EU passport with biometric chip and fly through. (In theory, there's always idiots who don't realise they don't have it)

I just visited Italy. We absolutely passed through biometric scans on arrival and departure from FCO (US passports, vacation so no paper visa). And then again at DUB outbound (US pre-clearance, so the normal Global Entry kiosk). All of this was expected. The only thing that surprise me was there was no passport check or any other custom/immigration at Dublin on the inbound leg. We just walked from the arrival gate to…

> And then again at DUB outbound (US pre-clearance, so the normal Global Entry kiosk).

Pre clearance from the US means nothing for Ireland, it's also not Schengen.

> The only thing that surprise me was there was no passport check or any other custom/immigration at Dublin on the inbound leg.

Because you've done it on your outbound. Ireland is also a bit more relaxed, but at the same time they can randomely ask you for your papers.

> from the arrival gate to the departure gate

If you don't pass the control, if I'm not wrong you'll never need to be rechecked. The only place it has happened to me within EU was between Ireland -> Germany -> Greece. Probably because Ireland isn't Schengen

Re: The EU is about to sell our most sensitive data to the US for visa-free travel

#274

What a stupid, hysterical claim. This "sensitive data" is just what's on your passport, fingerprints, criminal history, and terrorism flags (from European agencies), only for people crossing the border. I don't see how you could defend not sharing any of that.

...uhm You are happy to share your home address and everything else to securely identify you to a government acting increasingly erratic? Because I am not. I would be happy if terrorism-flagged people are shared across borders, but not everyone. Remember once the dataset is there, it is not ever going to go away, regardless of who is in power

You share your thoughts, ideas, likes and dislikes on American sites like this one. Possibly also have a YouTube account you've actively used daily for years. You don't seem to have a problem with that, why? I would argue the totality of your activity on American sites would be much more revealing about you than your fingerprints and home address.

Re: The EU is about to sell our most sensitive data to the US for visa-free travel

#275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect that false imprisonment/recognition cases are lessened with biometrics, not increased. I absolutely believe you can point me to individual cases though.

How could random prints be falsely linked to me if my prints are not in a database? It can only happen if they are.

You can be falsely linked to a crime without biometric evidence and excluded on the basis of biometric evidence

Re: The EU is about to sell our most sensitive data to the US for visa-free travel

#276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you expand on this? How can you board a flight without realID for $45?

Have you been to an airport yet since it became mandatory? They actually have signs around stating it. I had similar thoughts as the GP about that.

Not for roughly the last 6 months. I have been using my passport because my old drivers license doesn't expire until next year. I'll have to look closer or read the signs then. Just never noticed that.

Re: The EU is about to sell our most sensitive data to the US for visa-free travel

#277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The future is bleak if you are attempting to cross borders with a forged or stolen passport. Nobody else is adversely affected by this.

The U.S. accessing my personal data causes immediate harm and completely unacceptable risk.

and yet you use american sites and services like this one, where you freely give even more personal data than fingerprints like your interests, thoughts, and more!

I see comments like this all over hackernews but the truth is you actually don't care. You have a choice to not use HN/Reddit/YouTube/whatever but here you are.

Re: The EU is about to sell our most sensitive data to the US for visa-free travel

#279
post #234
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt the US would ever outsource something like this (border security) to an international organization like INTERPOL. It uses INTERPOL to track down and catch wanted people abroad, but that's it.

What do you think is stopping the US? It could be privacy but I don't think that would hold up in the public court as the US is way worse than EU when it comes to privacy regulations... what else? Control? And we're not talking about "border security" in its entirety, just the screening/identifying part.

From USA's perspective, Interpol is a tool. The same as the rest of Europe's agency and governance concoctions (ICC).

It is not any kind of authority or even a reliable mechanism to do what it wants.

Re: The EU is about to sell our most sensitive data to the US for visa-free travel

#280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same can be said about Flock, or other surveillance state mechanisms. It's good for security, it's more convenient than police doing police work. Until it's not. Until it's hacked or abused as powerful mechanisms commonly are.

Some amount of surveillance leads to a better society. See SG. Flock is needed for current USA. That's why idiots are up against it.

Flock is run by incompetants. Their systems are comically insecure and access is easily abused. And the amount of surveillance data they routinely collect is not small. There needed to be a lot more discuss of who is doing the surveillance, how, and why before this was foisted on the public.
Post reply on HN