An English girl in Wales - Avoid Heathrow unless you like being fingerprinted/photographed for wanting to use a plane

An English girl in Wales

I want to leave pawprints on the sands of time

Avoid Heathrow unless you like being fingerprinted/photographed for wanting to use a plane

28th-Mar-2008 09:42 am

I have to say I knew nothing about this but assuming it's true (clearly is, there were TONS of links) I think it's horrifying! I'm glad I know now because this would certainly have ended in me being banned from flying if I'd been planning so (well I would have refused!) so I thought others might appreciate the heads up.

"Travellers should avoid using Heathrow until the airport abandons its plans for the mass fingerprinting of passengers. That is the advice from the NO2ID Expats’ group. "Other hubs, whether in the UK or in other EU countries, should be preferred for the time being," the group says in a press release. Heathrow wants to fingerprint and photograph both domestic passengers and international travellers with onward connections to other British or Irish airports. But on 26 March, following a warning from the Information Commissioner’s Office that the measure may be illegal, the fingerprinting was suspended.

The photographing or "biometric capture" of passengers is going ahead. Those who refuse will be denied access to their flights.

+ Heathrow Terminal 5 fingerprint plans 'illegal' - The Telegraph
27/3/08 +
Plans to fingerprint millions of passengers a year at Heathrow's new fifth terminal have been put on hold hours before it opens for business tomorrow. BAA, the airport operator, took the decision after being warned by the Government's Information Commissioner that the move could
breach the Data Protection Act.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/26/nheathrow226.xml

Mood:horrified

Comments

28th-Mar-2008 10:34 am (UTC)

urasni

jen_ren was telling me last night that they've scrapped the idea as it's in breach of the DPA. No source on whether they have actually though. I agree with you though that it's an insane plan.

To be fair, they;ve been taking photocopies of your passports everytime you come into this country for about 2 years now at least. I'd be more worried if the Governments track record on any IT related project (i.e. data storage and retrieval) was anything other than diaboloically rubbish.

28th-Mar-2008 11:23 am (UTC)

woodbrook

yeah they've scrapped that but like the link says they're still doing the 'take your photo' bit I believe?

28th-Mar-2008 11:42 am (UTC)

reindeerflotila

they are goign to take my picture in may? shit. need to loose loads of weight and get a haircut shortly before.

then I will demand a copy for my 'portfolio' or threaten them with my agent

:P

28th-Mar-2008 11:53 am (UTC)

urasni

Yeah - I think they've been doing that for a while anyway to be honest.

28th-Mar-2008 12:16 pm (UTC)

reindeerflotila

amusingly, DPA really only affects STORAGE of data and whether or not it is PROCESSED in any manner, and our ability to request said data should we wish to view it.

Therefore it is the keeping of the photographs, not the taking of them that is the issue.

Whereas psychologically for me, it is the TAKING of them I am having wibble over :P

28th-Mar-2008 12:19 pm (UTC)

urasni

Oh, absolutely. I'm not so bothered by photos for some reason - probably because we must all appear so many times on CCTV these days it's become almost ingrained.

Hmmmm...

This is a bad thing. Need to shake that complacency.

28th-Mar-2008 12:51 pm (UTC)

woodbrook

yes you should! :|

28th-Mar-2008 01:39 pm (UTC)

urasni

Indeed - all of a sudden, wearing a hoodie doesn't seem like such a bad idea. :-D

28th-Mar-2008 05:54 pm (UTC)

steamgauge

This doesn't really bother me too much. They do it in the US and when I went over there had a thumb scan and a photo taken. It's really no different to how everyone's passport will be in a few years anyway.

I have to admit, I did feel a lot safer entering the US than I did when I returned and because of a delay was redirected to Heathrow. I was tired and a bit confused and the woman asked where I'd come from. I mumbled some answer, corrected myself and in all honestly couldn't have looked more suspicious if I'd tried - and nothing was checked. I could have been anyone and I walked right into this country.

Besides, I thought you guys would welcome this idea if it put people off taking so many internal flights when they could just have easily taken something less harmful to the environment. Someone from work took a flight from Leeds to Plymouth this week for no reason, which is a bit much IMO.

30th-Mar-2008 10:11 am (UTC)

woodbrook

I don't believe there's a reason to correlate removal of individual freedoms/facist state stylee and environmental issues.

ID cards etc don't stop terrorism, they simply give states more info on you and i personally think it is important to remember that the state is beholden to you and not the other way round. i find apathy upon this issue alarming and inappropriate.

so yeah it drives me absolutely crazy and i will need to check whether this has stopped before i next take a flight b/c noone is getting my damn fingerprints unless their reason is better than 'oh well you're flying somewhere on holiday'. i have nothing to hide but this does not compel me to share personal information with the government who works for ME.

cutting down flights is a completely separate issue.

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