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by mieseratte 2941 days ago
> Even if surveillance is already widespread, that doesn't make more surveillance a good thing.

I'm one of those types who uses cash, doesn't own a cell-phone, doesn't have Facebook or any of the others, opts for pat-downs at the airport as a form of protest, etc. etc.

Having security and surveillance on our ports of entry seems entirely reasonable to me.

The problem I can imagine is that we're almost guaranteed to run into No-Fly-List style mistaken-identity situations and I sincerely doubt CBP will have reasonable recourse for such mistakes.

3 comments

My privacy-related concern is that historically, surveillance data tends to be kept for long periods of time and used for purposes other than what it was collected for. My other concern is that I don't really welcome immigration officials having any more tools, giving how they're abusing the tools they already have.
That's a very fair and real concern, given "Synthesis Centers" and somewhat frequent allegations of parallel construction.

I suppose the proper answer is "Unfuck our security apparatus" but absent that, I see how abstaining from extremely abusable tools, e.g. this facial recognition, is a reasonable response.

Speaking of the no-fly list...

I got tickets at the airport last week (cool little trick to save some money on taxes vs. online)...

The ticket lady told me some customer was upset with her. So she called over TSA security and was able to put him on the no-fly list. She just thought it was great! That blew me away. Someone can ruin a person's life in seconds. Punchline: be a good, politically correct person at the airport. Even the hint of anger could get one on the no-fly list.

Which taxes are not applicable to ticket purchases at the airport?
> Having security and surveillance on our ports of entry seems entirely reasonable to me.

Having "ports of entry" as a concept seems entirely unreasonable to me.

I can travel between Bristol and Manchester without having to justify myself to anyone, prove who I am, etc. and I don't see why I shouldn't be able to travel between England and Canada under the same circumstances. Everyone in the world is an equally valid human being. How can one human being say to another "you're not allowed to exist in this public place unless you've got the correct paperwork"? It's barbaric.