One step nearer to 1984
Starting in mid-2007, the USA is going to scan in all ten fingerprints of people visiting the USA (at the moment they scan in 2 fingerprints). This allows the prints to be stored in a format compatible with that used by the FBI’s database. The fingerprints will made available to the FBI and international intelligence agencies with no restrictions on their use. Countries subject to the new scheme include America’s staunchest allies as well as other less cooperative states: Britain, other European Union nations, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, for example.
Additionally, according to today’s Observer:
...[travellers] already have their credit card details and email accounts inspected by the American authorities following a deal between the EU and the Department of Homeland Security. Now passengers face having all their credit card transactions traced when using one to book a flight. And travellers giving an email address to an airline will be open to having all messages they send and receive from that address scrutinised.
The demands were disclosed in ‘undertakings’ given by the Department of Homeland Security to the EU and published by the Department for Transport after a request under the freedom of information legislation…