e-ignite

Further to an earlier post I made, it turns out that the US government has reached an agreement with the EU over the data it collects from passengers travelling to the US. According to BetaNews, the data sharing is to continue with one difference from before: The US government have to request the data before they get it, where previously it was automatically forwarded. Wow. Our rights are protected again. Sorry… I’ll stop the sarcasm.

I’ll leave you to decide whether this is right or wrong, but here’s something to consider – the data that is given to the US every time you travel there:

Information about the booking of the ticket, about the passenger, and some things about his or her travelling companions and travelling history.

Frequent flyer miles, credit card number, e-mail address and telephone number, could all be present, depending on how the ticket was booked and paid for.

Requests for a special meal will show up too, unless they indicate the passenger’s race or religion. In this case, the CBP computer is meant to filter out the data.

There are also “open text” fields where the travel agent may enter general information about a passenger’s tastes and preferences, but the CBP computer is meant to scan these only for data relevant for security purposes. Manual searches are only allowed if the passenger has been identified as “high-risk”.

[source: BBC News]