privacy violations

[piranha]

cory doctorow had an "interesting" encounter with american airlines security last week. in short, they asked him to write down a list of names and addresses of all friends he was going to visit in the US.

*boggle*.

what the heck is behind this? is it a single instance of a security detail misinterpreting a regulation? note that nobody was able or willing to give him the name or number or text of said regulation. or is this yet another secretive CAPPS II (Computer Assisted Passenger Profiling System) thing? has this happened to anyone else who has written about it online, either on AA or on another airline?

oh, y'all know about CAPPS II, i hope -- if not, you really should.

Comments

[ailbhe]

I was seriously grilled about who I was going to meet and where I was staying when I flew into SFO some 5 years ago. Reduced to tears, in fact. It was due to an error filling in that peculiarly badly designed little green form.

immigration hassle

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

yeah, when there is some mistake on a form they have always been capable of becoming obnoxious. or when anything strikes them as weird. i once got hassled because the officer seemed certain he had seen me the week before (wasn't me).

Re: immigration hassle

[ailbhe]

Side A of the form says "Fill in all sections of this form including 4, 6 and 9." Side B has a big line saying DO NOT WRITE BELOW THIS LINE. Section 9 is below the line. It's just a repeat of the "place you're staying" address that appears in two other places on the form, but that's enough... At least I left it blank; that was easier to correct than if I'd filled it in.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I've been asked where I was staying in the past -- but never who I was visiting.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

OK, reading the article, it does look like what they wanted was a list of where he was staying. They've always required that.

Re: privacy violations

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

not when i last flew (or went by bus last year, where they make you fill out the same form); i think it's I-94 -- the white one, arrival/departure record). there used to be one single line for where one was going to be staying in the US, but it didn't require names, and it didn't require precise addresses. then that changed, and there were two lines, so one could enter a precise address (but still no names). there never was room for a list for every place one intended to stay, only the first one.

you have always been asked to sit down and write a list of names and addresses out on a blank piece of paper? nobody ever asked me to do that. i was verbally asked random things at times, such as how i had met the friend with whom i was staying, or how long i had known zir, but that stuff wasn't written down.

Re: privacy violations

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Well... not exactly.

When I first started visiting the US I did so on a UK passport. I don't recall which form I had to fill out (I've been doing it for so long now on a Canadian one that I just don't remember) but I do remember having to list where I was staying.

The thing is it was always been enforced sporadically. Even since travelling on a Canadian passport I've been asked where I was staying and with who, but only occasionally. Sometimes they asked for more information. I have once been asked to list all the places I was staying on a trip where I was touring around by car. The border guard looked like he was writing stuff down as I answered, but since I couldn't see his hands all that clearly he may have been doodling for all I know. Sometimes they asked for names, sometimes they didn't.

Usually the border guards who have asked me for this information have asked me a lot of questions in general - one that sticks out in my memory is wanting proof that I had a job to come home to in Canada. I've always chalked their concern up to the microchip that the majority fo Americans seem to carry around in their head that tells them that the USA is the greatest place in the world to live and that everybody else secretly wants to move there.

I've long been convinced that US Customs and Immigration have either crap training or their regulations are so convoluted that even their own staff can't understand them.

Re: privacy violations

[ailbhe]

The form I had to fill in was a narrow, long piece of green card.