Although I work in the log/event management space and therefore help organizations to gather more information about people, I am a big opponent of personal information collection.

I flew back from Switzerland to San Francisco after my Christmas break and was in for a surprise. Not only did they want my passport (which I can sort of understand ;), but they also wanted me to fill out an additional form with my address in San Francisco, a contact person, etc. Why do they need all that? And then there is still the controversy about the airlines giving passenger information to the TSA and possibly other US agencies. I just don’t know what they use all this information for? To flag potentially dangerous passengers? What was the rate of false positives for that? I wish everyone had stringent laws as the EU for personal data. At least I would have a chance to find out what the data is that they have about me and possibly correct it!

Are you a non-US citizen, and if so, did you enter the US lately? Yes? Picture taken, finger prints (soon to be 10, not just 2). Even more data they collect. I’ve got to tell you, it’s not just the wait in the immigration hall that annoys me. It’s all the data they collect. And that’s what tirggered my post. I wouldn’t have that much of a problem, if they actually told me what they were going to do with the data and kept it safe.

Maybe they are starting to rethink the “data collection” after more and more of the US agencies are suffering data leaks. Now the TSA itself. Hopefully they realize that they should either start to be serious about data security or stop collecting information!