Fingerprinting Foreigners

[Clownburner 0]

Fingerprinting Foreigners
by Bruce Schneier
Founder and CTO
Counterpane Internet Security, Inc.


Imagine that you're going on vacation to some exotic country. You get your visa, plan your trip, and take a long flight. How would you feel if, at the border, you were photographed and fingerprinted? How would you feel if your biometrics stayed in that country's computers for years? If your fingerprints could be sent back to your home country? Would you feel welcomed by that country, or would you feel like a criminal?

This week the U.S. government began doing just that to an expected 23 million visitors to the U.S. The US-VISIT program is designed to capture biometric information at our borders. Only citizens of 27 countries who don't need a visa to enter the U.S., mostly in Europe, are exempt. Currently all 115 international airports and 14 seaports are covered, and over the next three years this program will be expanded to cover at least 50 land crossings, and also to screen foreigners exiting the country.

None of this comes cheaply. The program cost $380 million in 2003 and will cost at least the same in 2004. But that's just the start; the Department of Homeland Security's total cost estimate nears $10 billion.

According to the Bush administration, the measures are designed to combat terrorism. As a security expert, it's hard for me to see how. The 9/11 terrorists would not have been deterred by this system; many of them entered the country legally on valid passports and visas. We have a 5,500-mile long border with Canada, and another 2,000-mile long border with Mexico. Two-to-three-hundred thousand people enter the country illegally each year from Mexico. Two-to-three-million people enter the country legally each year and overstay their visas. Capturing the biometric information of everyone entering the country doesn't make us safer.

And even if we could completely seal our borders, fingerprinting everyone still wouldn't keep terrorists out. It's not like we can identify terrorists in advance. The border guards can't say “this fingerprint is safe; it's not in our database” because there is no comprehensive fingerprint database for suspected terrorists.

More dangerous is the precedent this program sets. Today the program only affects foreign visitors with visas. The next logical step is to fingerprint all visitors to the U.S., and then everybody, including U.S. citizens.

Following this train of thought quickly leads to sinister speculation. There's no reason why the program should be restricted to entering and exiting the country; why shouldn't every airline flight be "protected?" Perhaps the program can be extended to train rides, bus rides, entering and exiting government buildings. Ultimately the government will have a biometric database of every U.S. citizen--face and fingerprints--and will be able to track their movements. Do we want to live in that kind of society?

Retaliation is another worry. Brazil is now fingerprinting Americas who visit that country, and other countries are expected to follow suit. All over the world, totalitarian governments will use the our fingerprinting regime to justify fingerprinting Americans who enter their countries. This means that your prints are going to end up on file with every tin-pot dictator from Sierra Leone to Uzbeckistan. And Tom Ridge has already pledged to share security information with other countries.

Security is a trade-off. When deciding whether to implement a security measure, we must balance the costs against the benefits. Large-scale fingerprinting is something that doesn't add much to our security against terrorism, costs an enormous amount of money that could be better spent elsewhere. Allocating the funds on compiling, sharing, and enforcing the terrorist watch list would be a far better security investment. As a security consumer, I'm getting swindled.

America's security comes from our freedoms and our liberty. For over two centuries we have maintained a delicate balance between freedom and the opportunity for crime. We deliberately put laws in place that hamper police investigations, because we know we are a more secure because of them. We know that laws regulating wiretapping, search and seizure, and interrogation make us all safer, even if they make it harder to convict criminals.

The U.S. system of government has a basic unwritten rule: the government should be granted only limited power, and for limited purposes, because of the certainty that government power will be abused. We've already seen the US-PATRIOT Act powers granted to the government to combat terrorism directed against common crimes. Allowing the government to create the infrastructure to collect biometric information on everyone it can is not a power we should grant the government lightly. It's something we would have expected in former East Germany, Iraq, or the Soviet Union. In all of these countries greater government control meant less security for citizens, and the results in the U.S. will be no different. It's bad civic hygiene to build an infrastructure that can be used to facilitate a police state.


A version of this essay originally appeared in Newsday.
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Office of Homeland Security webpage for the program:


News articles:












Opinions:

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Brazil fingerprints U.S. citizens in retaliation:

7CP#1 | BTR#2 | Payaso en fuego Rodriguez
"I want hot chicks in my boobies!"- McBeth

[goose491 0]

dis-gus-ting!

My Karma ran over my Dogma!!!

[NZL60 0]

not a problem.. when I first moved to this country several years ago I was required to give my fingerprints, have a physical and mental exam, undergo a series of injections. Even my employer required that I give fingerprints for federal regulatory purposes and that is applicable regardless of nationality.

I do these things happily, if it caused me a problem I would not have come here. If it's a requirement for tourists and they don't want to then don't go visit the country.

just my opinion of course.

Who said Kiwis can't fly?

[newsstand 0]

This whole concept is so much BS, especially when there is a list of OK countries. Geez, ya suppose a good terrorist might be able to get documentation that makes it look like he/she comes from an exempt country?

"Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening."
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes

[indyz 1]

I don't like it, even it is far from the worst thing that our government is doing to foreigners.

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

U.S. Pilot Fined for Gesture in Brazil

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=589&ncid=721&e=8&u=/ap/20040115/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/brazil_us_fingerprinting

By STAN LEHMAN, Associated Press Writer

SAO PAULO, Brazil - An American Airlines pilot was fined nearly $13,000 Wednesday on accusations he made an obscene gesture when being photographed at the airport as part of entry requirements for U.S. citizens, officials said.

Brazil imposed the new rules that Americans be fingerprinted and photographed at entry points in response the similar rules in the United States for citizens of Brazil and other countries whose citizens need visas to enter.

The pilot, Dale Robin Hersh, lifted his middle finger while undergoing the new security process at Sao Paulo's Guarulhos International Airport, said federal prosecutor Matheus Baraldi Magnani.

Police accused the Miami-based pilot of showing contempt to authorities, a crime in Brazil, and escorted him to a nearby federal courthouse for possible formal charges.

However, Hersh agreed to pay a fine before he leaves Brazil in exchange for no charges being filed, the prosecutor said.

"Since this was a minor crime I proposed that he be fined 36,000 reals ($12,750), which will later be donated to a home for the elderly," Magnani told reporters.

Hersh was freed on his own recognizance. The prosecutor said Hersh expected to pay the fine on Thursday. It wasn't immediately clear where Hersh was staying Wednesday night.

The prosecutor said Hersh could have faced charges punishable by up to two years in jail.

Hersh's 10-member crew was detained inside the airport when the incident began Wednesday morning and was not allowed to enter Brazil. Police said the crew was not charged with anything and was returning to the United States on an evening flight.

American Airlines spokeswoman Martha Pantin said the incident was the result of a misunderstanding.

"The company apologizes to the Brazilian (news - web sites) government, the airport authorities, the police or anyone else who may have perceived anything they believe to have been disrespectful," Pantin said.

Late Wednesday, when asked if the airline was paying the fine, Patin said: "We are taking care of any Brazilian government levies at this time."

The incident is the latest flap in growing diplomatic spat between Brazil and the United States.

The Brazilian requirement was first imposed at the order of the federal judge but on Monday it became the government's official policy, citing the diplomatic concept of "reciprocity."

On Monday, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva asked President Bush (news - web sites) to drop the visa requirement for Brazilians entering the United States, while Brazil's Foreign Ministry said the requirement could lead to a souring between the two nations.

"Recent episodes, such as the new system of identification of travelers, create a negative climate in public opinion with inevitable political implications, which is not in the interest of the two countries," the ministry said.

But in Rio de Janeiro, tourism officials are trying to console American tourists arriving at the airport by treating them to samba music and dancers and giving them flowers, jewelry and T-shirts.

Brazil currently requires Americans to have visas to enter Brazil because of reciprocity.

_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[Clownburner 0]

That's just sickening. Now I know why Bush had us removed from the World Court of Law - he didn't want to end up before a war crimes tribunal. Now he can claim that international law didn't apply to him instead.

7CP#1 | BTR#2 | Payaso en fuego Rodriguez
"I want hot chicks in my boobies!"- McBeth

[FallRate 0]

If this is true, Ashcroft should be hung!

I should probably point out, I'm referring to Indyz' link.

FallRate

[Skyrad 0]

Times marching on and forigeners including Brits are being treated more and more like criminals if they go to the US. What a shame, I like it over there but the US won't be seeing my money until things change. This is fu**ed up.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/humanrights/story/0,,1984650,00.html


Speaker corner in 3..2...1...

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[Amazon 7]

Hell they have been doing it to us in this country for years... for jobs... when you join the military etc.... I cant believe they have not pused to figerprint EVERYONE yet.

It sould be so easy to do... taillight out.. you need to be fingerprinted... probable cause you know... you could have something in your car...yada yada yada...

[akarunway 1]

Quote

Hell they have been doing it to us in this country for years... for jobs... when you join the military etc.... I cant believe they have not pused to figerprint EVERYONE yet.

It sould be so easy to do... taillight out.. you need to be fingerprinted... probable cause you know... you could have something in your car...yada yada yada...

Where you been? They already started.http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/07/722.asp

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

[Skyrad 0]

They put you on the FBI database???? and do they have the right to look at all your credits card transaction if they feel like it as well? Thats what the US want to do to Brits traveling to the US. The US has gone from watchfulness to total paranoia and xenaphobia.

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[GrumpySmurf 0]

They're finger printing citizens of exempt countries as well - on the way through INS in Vegas, the officer for my line was making everyone not a US citizen press the finger to the pad and smile for the web cam - including us passport carrying Canucks.

Other officers were not.

[Amazon 7]

Quote

They put you on the FBI database????

You would have to ask an honest law enforement type on here but I will bet that ANY fingerprint for any reason by LE in the USA that is taken is sent to the FBI for data wharehousing.

Quote

The US has gone from watchfulness to total paranoia and xenaphobia.

True Dat

Our right wing posters would argue.... if you are not doing anything wrong.. you have nothing to worry about..

Personally I worry about fascism in this country at an all time high.