Big Brother: Homeland Security Wants to Collect More Data

Department of Homeland Security

“The Department of Homeland Security is studying how best to implement a little-noticed congressional mandate to gather, search, and store biometric data from all foreign visitors leaving the country.”

 

Big Brother, aka “The Department of Homeland Security” is at it again.  Check out the following U.S. News & World Report article:

Homeland Security Explores Ambitious Plan to Collect More Personal Data From Foreign Travelers

By Alex Kingsbury

Posted August 20, 2008

The Department of Homeland Security is studying how best to implement a little-noticed congressional mandate to gather, search, and store biometric data from all foreign visitors leaving the country. The objective is to collect better data on foreigners who violate the law while in the country or who overstay their visas.

… Travelers, including all American citizens, are already subject to search without suspicion at border crossings and occasionally have electronic devices searched, duplicated, and stored.

… Next summer, all passports used at border crossings must be machine readable, and many will contain radio-frequency chips that—at least in theory—could allow border guards to scan arriving and departing visitors as their cars roll through checkpoints. That’s the hope anyway—an EZ-Pass-style system for border crossings. (more… )