EU giving private information to US for airtravelers

[tongue_of_colicab]

The US wanted this for months and apparently today they got what they wanted. I've got this from a Dutch newsite but here are the basics

US threatend not to allow any european airplanes into America (we cant close our airports and harbors for America? pussy european ''leaders''). Now they get acces to your creditcard information, address, email address, luggage information, telephone number, name, reason you come to america and other stuff the article didnt mention what. All this needs to be in america 3 days in advance and will be saved for 15 (!) years. The EU is working on a similair thing for america, but knowing the EU, and America, it will probably take forever before americans have to do the same thing. Ofcourse this is all to fight terrorism.

Whats even better is that once you actually land in america they will take your picture and fingerprints. Apparently your guilty untill proven innocent.

They already did the same with bankaccounts btw. Ofcourse the EU says the Americans only have acces if its for fighting terrorism but needless to say I have alot of doubts about that. They call everything terrorism these days.

Personally this pisses me off. Again the EU shows they dont have any balls. The EU should have said fine, EU plains dont land in the USA anymore. But your plains and ships aint comming here either. But instead they play like america's lapdog again.

On a little side note I think the EU should just stop. All they do, especially for Holland, is cost me more money, more rules and no advantages. Just go back to the old europe with only trade rules between certain countries. We dont need things like one (bad) constitution.

Any thoughts?

 

[nutball]

This is old news, isn't it?! While we're at it why is sharing such information with the US any different than countries within the EU sharing it with each other?

(And it's in the wrong forum, as I think this thread will turn into a Euro v. US flame-war within about a dozen posts).

 

[Simon F]

Whats even better is that once you actually land in america they will take your picture and fingerprints.

Where have you been? It's been like that for quite some time now. Furthermore, the last time I flew to the US, the plane had to sit on the tarmac at Heathrow for more than 3 hours because the US had to approve our passenger list.

Now they get acces to your creditcard information, address, email address,

Spammers have my email address too.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

This is old news, isn't it?! While we're at it why is sharing such information with the US any different than countries within the EU sharing it with each other?

(And it's in the wrong forum, as I think this thread will turn into a Euro v. US flame-war within about a dozen posts).

Its only become official today.

Spammers have my email address too.

And thats a excuse for having a foreign governemt having all your personal information?

The problem I have is that you are being treated like a enemy. Whats next, letting a foreigners wear yellow stars on their jackets so they are well recognizable?

It really isnt going to help anything having everybody's info. As if a terrorist cant easily work a way around address and CC information. This is among the same lines as the european dataretention rule for internet traffic. It wont have practical use for fighting terrorism.

 

[pascal]

Many people dont like this kind of privacy invasion.
They like less being fingerprinted and photographed.
This reminds me when we started to photography and fingerprint the US visitors too. This tourist showed his finger for the Federal Police officer: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3470383.stm


Maybe in the future we will have a more reasonable and automated/secure way to travel.

 

[Anarchist4000]

I really don't see what is wrong with wanting to know who is entering a country. And with much of the procedure becoming electronic it should make things go even faster.

It's kind of like why does Britain put cameras all over the place? They aren't going to actively prevent any crimes or terrorist attacks but if something does happen it makes it much easier to go back and figure out what happened and track down the culprits.

I had to get photographed when I got my drivers license and my high school actually had the audacity to photograph me to for the school year book. Can't say i'm overly concerned about that invasion of my privacy.

The fingerprinting would be annoying but with electronic scanners it takes all of about 2 seconds.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

I really don't see what is wrong with wanting to know who is entering a country.

Thats why we have passports.

Knowing who is entering your country is something totally different than getting someones personal data like CC information (is that necessery to know who is entering the country?, and why the should the USA have acces to my bankaccount? im not getting to see those of americans either right?) my telephone number (is that necessery to know who I am?) my complete address (is that necessery if you already know my country?) my email address (how for gods sake is this necessery?) my fingerprints (I didnt know I was a criminal?) and my photograph jail style.

 

[Frank]

I like the Brazilian reaction. Then again, you could also say, that the EU isn't falling for such populistic measures. And they didn't go for the biometric passports the US demanded a few years ago.

Other than that, I wouldn't even mind if the US government would strap GPS tracking device to you when you wanted to enter. It discourages people to go there, so in the end it's their loss.

 

[nutball]

Then again, you could also say, that the EU isn't falling for such populistic measures. And they didn't go for the biometric passports the US demanded a few years ago.

Are you saying that the EU has no plans to introduce biometric passports for its citizens?

 

[Frank]

Are you saying that the EU has no plans to introduce biometric passports for its citizens?

Well, there are plans for three years now, but they don't seem to be in any hurry to actually implement those plans. I don't think they will. It's mostly diplomacy, I think.

 

[pjbliverpool]

On a little side note I think the EU should just stop. All they do, especially for Holland, is cost me more money, more rules and no advantages. Just go back to the old europe with only trade rules between certain countries. We dont need things like one (bad) constitution.

Any thoughts?

If you don't like getting pushed around by the US then I don't see how moving away from a unified Europe is going to help acheive that. The more unified Europe is the more clout it has with the US, the more fragmented it is, the more they can push individual countries around.

I look forward to the day when the EU acts as a single entity on all matters of defence and foreign policy.