We're being watched everywhere.

[Contrary1]

Collecting of details on travelers documented

Gathering of personal information violates Privacy Act, activists contend

"The U.S. government is collecting electronic records on the travel habits of millions of Americans who fly, drive or take cruises abroad, retaining data on the persons with whom they travel or plan to stay, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers have carried, according to documents obtained by a group of civil liberties advocates and statements by government officials.

The personal travel records are meant to be stored for as long as 15 years, as part of the Department of Homeland Security's effort to assess the security threat posed by all travelers entering the country. Officials say the records, which are analyzed by the department's Automated Targeting System, help border officials distinguish potential terrorists from innocent people entering the country.

But new details about the information being retained suggest that the government is monitoring the personal habits of travelers more closely than it has previously acknowledged. The details were learned when a group of activists requested copies of official records on their own travel. Those records included a description of a book on marijuana that one of them carried and small flashlights bearing the symbol of a marijuana leaf.

The Automated Targeting System has been used to screen passengers since the mid-1990s, but the collection of data for it has been greatly expanded and automated since 2002, according to former DHS officials.

Officials yesterday defended the retention of highly personal data on travelers not involved in or linked to any violations of the law. But civil liberties advocates have alleged that the type of information preserved by the department raises alarms about the government's ability to intrude into the lives of ordinary people. The millions of travelers whose records are kept by the government are generally unaware of what their records say, and the government has not created an effective mechanism for reviewing the data and correcting any errors, activists said..."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20913640/

[DS1]

1. Live in England for a week

You think we're watched here?

[ksilvas]

2. "almost cut my hair..." Crosby Stills and Nash. n/t

[southerncrone]

3. It's 1984 in the Orwellian sense.

Hillary's favorite book. She stated this back when Bill was running in 1992.

[GoneOffShore]

5. Gotta love Hils

And her appreciation of the Constitution and civil liberties.

I suspect that if she is elected that the ACLU is going to be just as busy as it is now, if not more so.

:hide:

[ksilvas]

6. I turned 16 in 1984....

listening to the radio I heard about this book, "1984", written by
some dude, Orwell. Everyone was going on, about how his
book of the future had turned out to be wrong. Now this was the Reagan years,
the beginning of the crazy re-pug revolution, I was 16 but I wasn't blind.
I read the book that year, because of all the hub-bub, and when I was
finished I realized that not only was Orwell right, but that it was here,
alive and well and maybe he wasn't talking about the future but maybe
the political mentality of the 20th Century.

[southerncrone]

7. It was required reading when I was a freshman in HS. That was 1970.

Then we all wondered if it would come true. Little did we know that some of the groundwork had already been laid.
We should probably read it again, but I'm almost scared to!:scared:
I cry almost daily over what has become of our country. :cry:

[kineneb]

4. moon the bastards

I am in a grumpy mood. Sorry.

[rucky]

9. They can already see through your clothes.

[wildbilln864]

8. k&r! n/t