Ars Editor Learns Feds Have His Old IP Addresses, Full Credit Card Numbers 217
mpicpp writes with the ultimate results of Ars's senior business editor Cyrus Farivar's FOIA request. In May 2014, I reported on my efforts to learn what the feds know about me whenever I enter and exit the country. In particular, I wanted my Passenger Name Records (PNR), data created by airlines, hotels, and cruise ships whenever travel is booked. But instead of providing what I had requested, the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) turned over only basic information about my travel going back to 1994. So I appealed—and without explanation, the government recently turned over the actual PNRs I had requested the first time.
The 76 new pages of data, covering 2005 through 2013, show that CBP retains massive amounts of data on us when we travel internationally. My own PNRs include not just every mailing address, e-mail, and phone number I've ever used; some of them also contain: The IP address that I used to buy the ticket, my credit card number (in full), the language I used, and notes on my phone calls to airlines, even for something as minor as a seat change.
The 76 new pages of data, covering 2005 through 2013, show that CBP retains massive amounts of data on us when we travel internationally. My own PNRs include not just every mailing address, e-mail, and phone number I've ever used; some of them also contain: The IP address that I used to buy the ticket, my credit card number (in full), the language I used, and notes on my phone calls to airlines, even for something as minor as a seat change.
Re:The Stasi & Stripes (Score:5, Informative)
"The Lives of Others (German: Das Leben der Anderen) is a 2006 German drama film, marking the feature film debut of filmmaker Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, about the monitoring of East Berlin by agents of the Stasi, the GDR's secret police. It stars Ulrich Mühe as Stasi Captain Gerd Wiesler, Ulrich Tukur as his superior Anton Grubitz, Sebastian Koch as the playwright Georg Dreyman, and Martina Gedeck as Dreyman's lover, a prominent actress named Christa-Maria Sieland."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lives_of_Others
Re:The Stasi & Stripes (Score:2, Informative)
In fact east germany had a democratic constitution, most likely due to pressure from the americans directly after the war, so that the soviets don't errect a communist dictature (same in all eastern european countries). The americans failed, but the constitution was democratic. The only truly democratic votes were at the end of the DDR. The voted parliament then declared to join west germany.
Second thing to know: west germany still had claims on east germany, thinking it was one country. This was also the reason why people who fled over the wall quickly got west german papers. If you argument this way, stasi was unconstitutional, even if you say that the right for privacy was created by the bundesverfassungsgericht much later. This however didn't change the fact that the stasi officers still had their ranks and even got their pension. There weren't nürnberg processes after the reunification.
Re:Just another reason not to fly..... (Score:4, Informative)
My wife and I last flew commercial on 9-10-2001 out of LGA, the day before 9-11. My wife and I decided, the next day that, short of an emergency situation, we were done flying commercial. If we couldn't drive to get there, we didn't need to go. It's not because we were afraid of terrorists, but we saw what a hassle and invasion of privacy it would became.
I hope that when you are driving, you don't use any toll roads and that when you buy gas or anything else, you use cash that you obtained from an ATM when you were at home. Best also not to drive through any intersections with red light cameras. You also might need to put optical filters on your license plates if you don't want to be tracked. There are lots of cameras out there.
Re:So Feds in the 2000s have the same data... (Score:3, Informative)