U.S. ‘Licence to Snoop’ on British Air Travellers
January 1st, 2007Via: Telegraph:
Britons flying to America could have their credit card and email accounts inspected by the United States authorities following a deal struck by Brussels and Washington.
By using a credit card to book a flight, passengers face having other transactions on the card inspected by the American authorities. Providing an email address to an airline could also lead to scrutiny of other messages sent or received on that account.
I find this hard to believe, because it implies a couple things.. one, it implies that your credit card company/bank will willingly give over the information to the U.S. Gov’t (I can see some doing it, but most probably won’t). Second, the e-mail thing.. yeah right, do you really think your e-mail provider will willingly give access to innocent citizens’ e-mail accounts to the Government? It is absurd, it is only done when there is a crime involved, and there’s a proper subpoena and all that. You can’t just go into someone’s e-mail account like that, it won’t happen.
My 2 cents
Don’t be so naive. The US and British governments have been in cahoots for some time. Dirty tricks occur on both sides of the Atlantic. Your personal information is up for grabs by all and sundry. Stay off the grid and under the radar!
Because it’s absurd, it won’t happen!? HAHAHA
A tip for the responder wearing the “Hello, My Name is Mark” sticker above:
Where have you been living for the last decade or two, friend?
Yes, (not-so-)comfortably ensconced deep within the warm bosom of empire, keening along with the hum of the great machines.
The world of “finance” is not a series of feudal lords isolated in great alabaster towers, keepers of one decrepit Merovingian flame or another. A grand gleaming emerald facade rises to the heavens, belching forth noxious fumes from every exposed orifice.
The interlinked and interlocking nature of the controlling ownership in the early 20th century was revealing enough. Today, to believe (and I will risk saying) so blindly in the corporate system reveals much about an individual.
Mostly, I am saddened. The vibrant, creative human animal penned into vast industrial hubs like sick cattle, accepting the grandest lie of all: that the polluted and disintegrating bodies of the modern world are our own fault. By the time Eisenhower broke message (“military-industrial complex”) it was already far, far too late.
Fair warning, once you choose to walk away from the fairy tale of the Founding Fathers, there’s no going back. Ism’s make schisms. But then, they’re supposed to. That’s why they’ll never work, not a single one.
Utopia happens when good intentions are well defined, say +1. Dystopia happens when bad intentions are well defined, say -1. But when you add ’em up, sure enough, zero. Maybe we just need to each come up with our own logic and stop using the pre-defined scripts? Perhaps U = D, to be seen as corollary points on a sphere of influence?
Point? Such data has been aggregating for many years now in vast public and private databases. Corporate governance is the rule, not the exception. Government is simply business by other means, whether refering to state-sanctioned slavery or immigration policy. Don’t be naive.
Now, to close on an appropriate note:
I had the good fortune of getting drunk with one of the world’s great sociobioligists about 30 years ago in the lounge of the Boulderado Hotel in Boulder, Colorado. And he said (to paraphrase) that man, the curious, tinkering, tool and gadget obsessed socialized killer ape cannot dissociate himself from his innate neurology. That he will go the way of any overly successful species — by overpopulation, pandemic, etc. He has already accomplished most of his own extinction by building ever more complex nests, food extracting and territory expanding warmaking systems and, will consume and destroy his environment, which in this case is the entire planet, not along a steady line but by orders of magnitude due to his ever increasing efficiency. He cannot change what he is, cannot change what made him successful in the first place. Nature loves species success. So the primate plays happily with the flood of mechanical puzzles and toys inside the systems of interconnected gadgetry, inside an entire world of comforting electronic tribal noise, the media drumming of the synthetic technological community his species has created, incapable of conceiving that there is a finite limit to the earth itself. He cannot look up from or outside his own evolution and neurology as a species.
“So why don’t you ever write that?” I asked.
“Because it would be like shouting into a storm. No one would hear me, and the apes would turn on me. So the best thing I can do is take care of myself and family, live intelligently and pray that I am wrong. But I’m not. So there is nothing to do but get a good seat, think about life and watch the show.”
— Joe Bageant
Not all e-mail providers are based in the US or UK. Do you think a company like hushmail (based in Antigua, and extremely privacy conscious) will open up their customers’ e-mail accounts to the US/UK governments? I repeat.. it ain’t gonna happen.. I’d have to see it to believe it. I’d even have a hard time believing they’d open up US/UK based e-mail accounts for warrantless snooping, that is against every law I can imagine, in either country. I mean I know we’re growing more and more police-state like, but this is beyond that! It’d be all over the news if ordinary people’s e-mail accounts were up for grabs by governments.
Mark,
I just called the tooth fairy and she confirmed your doubts, now i feel better and I can go back to my nap in lalaland…phew!
It’s Hammer-time!
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.01/start.html?pg=9
The best approach? Hammer time. Hitting the chip with a blunt, hard object should disable it. A nonworking RFID doesn’t invalidate the passport, so you can still use it.
What about sticking a strong magnet on your RFID?
Anyone tried that?
If your free world cattle tag shows visible signs of vandalism, you may be slapped on the wrist (with a taser) and sent incognito to an “undisclosed location” where your privacy will be so tediously protected that nobody will ever know where you are… (including you)
Interesting post Kevin.
to Mark,
The health files at medical offices ‘require?’ a release for ‘national security’. Insurance companies routinely are provided such information for risk assessment. email accounts are much like a library card, and we know the authorities are permitted to review your take homes. Please keep telling us what you don’t believe will be done to us in the name of empire, so we will know you by your denial. you have denied twice here already, going for three?
Joe B’s comments are exceptional this thread.