The Department of Homeland Security and Its Seventeen Year Data Base

Long after your trip to the United States, the Department of Homeland Security will have a record of your travels:

“Travellers flying into the US from Europe will have their personal data collected by the airline and kept on record by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) until 2022.

The European Commission’s latest deal with the US over data usage allows the DHS to keep passenger name record (PNR) data for seven years in an active database and then another eight years in ‘non-operational’ storage.”

link: US to keep UK personal data for 17 years

The data may provide more information to the DHS than even your next door neighbor knows. It included “political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership and sexual orientation“. - How is that information obtained? Is it cross referenced to those library books on existential philosophy or Buddhist history that you once borrowed? And what if your political opinions change over the years? Do you send the Homeland Security people a note?

It is doubtful whether it would be possible for the average citizen to check on his/her personal information on those data bases. Any errors may perpetuate for decades. The speed and efficiency of technology is sometimes just a bit creepy. Scott McNealy may be right - “You have no privacy. Get over it.”.

Catherine Forsythe

[tags]privacy, security, department of homeland security, travel, data base, data retention, scott mcnealy, errors, verification[/tags]