Fly BA, tell the US govt your meal preferences (sod all to do with hacking sorry!)

I know we need to fight terrorism but this really ticked me off: (from BA.com)

Quote:

---

With effect from Wednesday 5 March 2003, there will be a new law in the US which requires airlines operating services to/from the US to allow US Customs access to passenger data stored on airline booking systems. US Customs will have access to the passenger booking data. The purpose of this requirement is security. The US government believes they can withdraw some profiling data from these details. Other governments such as Australia and Canada are expected to follow suit soon after. Accordingly any information we hold about you and your travel arrangements may be disclosed to the customs and immigration authorities of any country in your itinerary.

---

Not only does this really run contrary with European DP laws, it's silly. Now why on earth would it be useful to the US govt to know that I am vegetarian or what my credit card number is (some of the details they will be passing). IMHO this seems really daft. Surely instead of passing the responsibility for risks to the US govt, our airlines should perhaps be doing something to prevent them.

BTW, I love and always fly BA because I think generally they are a really good airline, but I'm also really interested in keeping my private data private.

Rant over.

Rachel

thanks for the info, mabey its time to buy that private jet :D

People shouldn't be flying around in airplanes. It ain't natural.
But ,really, if you say "I must have a specially prepared meal
because I won't pollute my body with your infidel food."...
Heh, Heh.
:cool:

Wow, interesting stuff to hear since i fly quite often for a student.

I can see customs now...He has black hair! *Gasp!* TERRORIST!

I agree! The whole terrorist thing is getting out of hand. We are all prisoners now, just because 3000 people were killed in America. I am sure Spock wouldn’t agree with this, as his favourite saying goes like this ‘ the need of many out weights the need of the few’ .I wont be surprised, if the next thing the American gov does is to microchip everyone of its citizens! I am glad I am not living in America. I am anti terrorism but this is getting too far.

DrEvil

This is an extremely difficult topic.

On one hand, we need to be able to protect our rights to privacy. Every human being has the basic right to privacy. But on the flip-side of this, we need to be able to safeguard our values and freedoms against those who seek it's downfall. How this is achieved is unknown to me.

Let's all hope that that correct balance is found and implemented wisely....


Regards,
VB