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

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

#341

Post by aboardRat4 »

mothballed wrote: post #332
anticensor wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except such a federal ID already exists: the Passport Card. Make it free to obtain and mandatory to use.

Passport card can be revoked over fairly small amounts of late child support which applies to a surprisingly large portion of America, particularly historically oppressed minorities. It would be quite foolish to rely on that for identification if you have children as a simple divorce could put you in instant arrears and cause you to lose your ID.

>Passport card can be revoked over fairly small amounts of late child support

This is clearly ridiculous and not in any way connected to the reason passports exist. It's just purely bureaucratic tyranny.

Even the stated goal of "preventing people from running away to other countries" doesn't work, because the USA doesn't have border service check the passport _on leaving_ the country.

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

#342

Post by aboardRat4 »

coldtea wrote: post #336
axus wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, we like to reduce state capacity. Helps limit the damage bad actors can do when they are in power.

And how's that been working out for you? Not asking whether "reducing state capacity" helps with that. Asking how's that "reducing" going.

Yeah, I'm also curious.

The USA has one of the biggest and most convoluted systems of government in the world, one of the only few where people actually need lawyers to navigate it.

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

#343

Post by t0mpr1c3 »

CrimsonRain wrote: post #302
t0mpr1c3 wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Then that should be fixed instead of vandalizing. And let's be honest, that's not why "some" people are against them.

Sure, sure. Innocent people have nothing to hide.

I have never advocated vandalism. I do advocate for oversight.

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

#344

Post by mothballed »

aboardRat4 wrote: post #341
mothballed wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Passport card can be revoked over fairly small amounts of late child support which applies to a surprisingly large portion of America, particularly historically oppressed minorities. It would be quite foolish to rely on that for identification if you have children as a simple divorce could put you in instant arrears and cause you to lose your ID.

>Passport card can be revoked over fairly small amounts of late child support This is clearly ridiculous and not in any way connected to the reason passports exist. It's just purely bureaucratic tyranny. Even the stated goal of "preventing people from running away to other countries" doesn't work, because the USA doesn't have border service check the passport _on leaving_ the country.

There is no check on leaving, and our neighbor Mexico not only usually doesn't check, it's constitution* explicitly prohibits requiring passports for entry. And when you return US has to take you back, if citizen, passport or not. So you can easily go to and from Mexico without passport.

Virtually every time I go to Mexico, I'm one of very small % with passport going either direction.

* This is debated and some questionable court cases that actually protected rights of indigenous Mexicans to travel are cited as reasons why this constitutional provision isn't in effect (even though the case was clearly written to protect indigenous rather than justify overthrowing the constitution), but go to a land border with Mexico and 9 of 10 times I find they follow the constitution and don't check passport.

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

#345

Post by port11 »

sam_lowry_ wrote: post #259
T-A wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a national ID number isnt usually publicly available info A couple of counterexamples: Italy's "fiscal code" is generated with a simple algorithm which can be executed manually: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_fiscal_code Sweden's "personal identity number" is public information and can be looked up by anyone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_identity_number_(Swed...

Belgian National Number is your birth date, then an increment from 1 to 999 for every baby born that day, then a base-97 checksum.

Are there never more than 1k babies born in a day?

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

#346

Post by aboardRat4 »

mothballed wrote: post #344
aboardRat4 wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Passport card can be revoked over fairly small amounts of late child support This is clearly ridiculous and not in any way connected to the reason passports exist. It's just purely bureaucratic tyranny. Even the stated goal of "preventing people from running away to other countries" doesn't work, because the USA doesn't have border service check the passport _on leaving_ the country.

There is no check on leaving, and our neighbor Mexico not only usually doesn't check, it's constitution* explicitly prohibits requiring passports for entry. And when you return US has to take you back, if citizen, passport or not. So you can easily go to and from Mexico without passport. Virtually every time I go to Mexico, I'm one of very small % with passport going either direction . * This is debated and some ques…

So basically the passport can be made a universal ID, fairly easily, it's just some people in the higher circles don't want it to be.

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

#347

Post by rafram »

wolvoleo wrote: post #320
rafram wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The process in the US is you open an online form, type in your details, and upload a JPEG of your face! Then you receive a passport in the mail a few weeks later! I would say that is a lot less painful than the Polish process.

Yes but how do they make sure the person receiving the passport is the right one? That's why we have to do both in person.

You give them (a scan of) your state ID, or just send in your previous passport if it’s a renewal.

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

#348

Post by villish »

shiandow wrote: post #333
villish wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is more personal than the contents of your mind? Each interaction and comment is a piece of information which when combined is much more revealing about you than fingerprints. It's not as personal as your diary, but it is the closest thing to it.

You're free to know me, but not where I live. It's not hard to see the difference in types of personal information.

I see what you're saying but I just disagree that those things are more personal. I don't think it would be difficult for any western government to find where you live from your name. Especially when combined with information you share online.

Don't get me wrong I would absolutely prefer a world where everyone is guaranteed privacy and governments would need a courts permission to even look up your phone number. It just will never exist and the only thing truly private is our thoughts.

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

#349

Post by treszkai »

port11 wrote: post #345
sam_lowry_ wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Belgian National Number is your birth date, then an increment from 1 to 999 for every baby born that day, then a base-97 checksum.

Are there never more than 1k babies born in a day?

With a population of 12M and life expectancy of 80 years (give or take), probably not, as that needs ~400 newborns a day to maintain, and the birth rate is probably well below that, like in most Western countries.

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

#350

Post by yeputons »

markdown wrote: post #304
maratc wrote: post #12

The 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…

> visa (a major hassle) and biometric data passing in the airport (a minor one). Since US-issued visas are multiple entry for 10yrs, it's relatively not a hassle at all.

If you're lucky with your citizenship. Others get 3yrs or 1yr max. And that's after administrative processing if you're unlucky, which might take years: https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2020/11/09/a-us-visa-in-937-days...

And for some passports in the last, say, six years, the probability is significantly increased. There is no official information as far as I know, just some anecdotical evidence from forums.

And before all of that you have to remember all your trips for the last 10 years to enter into DS-160 (you learn to keep a spreadsheet after the first time you do that, UK visas require that as well). And secure an appointment, which (since 2025) must happen in the country of your citizenship, or the country of your residence, which you should prove (sometimes it takes years to get residency documents in some EU countries). If you're unlucky, the waiting time for an appointment might be measured in years too. If you get a waiting time after all, sometimes there are just no appointments available whatsoever with no extra information.

Attending a company event is, of course, not a valid reason to get an expedited appointment. At least not that I've heard.

And I'm sure there are even more tricky things that I haven't heard of.

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