Coming to America? What's your sex life like?

[Graeblyn]

Originally posted by Darion
Do you even read the articles you get from the Anti-America Weekly circular, or do you just assume they are suitably biased when you submit them with unrelated topic descriptions?

The Guardian is a main-stream left-center paper. It has a liberal slant, but is hardly

the Anti-America Weekly circular

On an unrelated note, some posters here are responding to this article without realising the article refers to two seperate bodies: the EC and the EU. The EC has agreed to something the EU isn't happy about.

[Darion]

Originally posted by kestra
Offended isn't the word I'd use.
I'm Canadian, however the idea of being asked about my sex life, as a matter of national security is NOBODY'S BUSINESS. The same goes for my political and philosophical leanings.

Okay, but this isn't what is happening. The US is being granted access to already-collected information, so you are not, in fact, being asked about anything for the sake of "national security".

[Darion]

Originally posted by Graeblyn
The Guardian is a main-stream left-center paper. It has a liberal slant, but is hardly

My point was not to doubt the veracity of the source, but rather the method of its delivery to the forums. By his commentary, Kestra has presented the information in the article as a program, institution, questionnaire, and/or census being conducted by the United States under the guise of national security.

People coming to the States are not asked what their sex life is like - at some point in the past this data has apparently already been collected by an organization completely outside of the US.

[kestra]

Kestra has presented the information in the article as a program, institution, questionnaire, and/or census being conducted by the United States under the guise of national security.

There is no guise here. The Dept. of Homeland Security will be using this information, claiming it is a tool to fight terrorism, and you can be reasonably assured that it will be passed along to other government agencies.
There are legitimate questions that customs should ask. The ones pointed out in the article are completely ridiculous, and an invasion of privacy.

[Darion]

For the last time, the United States is not instituting any kind of personal questionnaire to determine details of passenger life. The EC is going to allow the US to access information that the -EC- has -already- collected. See also:

The EC is in the final stages of agreeing a new Passenger Name Record system with the US which will allow American officials to access detailed biographical information about passengers entering international airports.

This makes the topic of this thread and most of your comments therein extremely disingenuous. I would accuse you of debating in bad faith, but I honestly don't know if you get the points being raised.

[kestra]

The bottom line is the DHS will be using this information as another tool to, what they consider, combat terrorism.
The content of the information(personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, and data concerning the health or sex life of individuals) is my objection.

The EU parliament said it was concerned the data would lead to 'a significant risk of massive profiling and data mining, which is incompatible with basic European principles and is a practice still under discussion in the US congress.'

[Darion]

Originally posted by kestra
The bottom line is the DHS will be using this information as another tool to, what they consider, combat terrorism.
The content of the information(personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, and data concerning the health or sex life of individuals) is my objection.

And to you, this does not beg the question as to what the EC is doing collecting this information to begin with, but instead implores you to criticize a US-based organization for having it given to them?

[Daryonn]

Looks to me like the EC is fully agreeing with this action and supporting it. It also sounds like this has already been happening however the point of contention is over it being able to be kept for 15 years rather than the old system of 3 years. Plus it giving the U.S the right to give to a 3rd party entity being another point of contention.

They used the headline to grab and work up the mob however after the first few lines they go on and on about who it can be given to and for how long it can be kept rather than the content.

Bottom line, 1 the EC does not have to agree to it and 2 if you do not like it then do not come to the U.S and you will not be a part of it.

Oh and P.S the U.S would not be gathering this data the EC will be, the U.S just wants the right to the information from those whom come to the U.S.

[Daryonn]

Originally posted by Darion
And to you, this does not beg the question as to what the EC is doing collecting this information to begin with, but instead implores you to criticize a US-based organization for having it given to them?

Very good point!

[Malacasta]

There have been major elections and long term protests revolving around the privacy and sovereignty issues associated with the European Union and its powers. Those battles are ongoing and will probably be revived by this news. Kestra doesn't need to give his opinion on the European collection of data to express his opinion on the American Government demanding they be given access to the processed information and demanding the right to hold it for 15 years instead of 3 years. But he already did when he said that there would now be more forms he’d have to lie on.

Why are people dodging the issue of the US government’s demand to know the sex life and eating habits of tourists by attacking Kestra for posting instead? Are you guys taking the piss or something?

At the end of the day Kestra and I can yell as loudly and be as outraged as we like by the current US administration’s actions, but we aren’t US citizens and can do very little to change what your government does. One of the little things we can do as foreigners is to point out stuff that upsets us and draw it to your attention so that you might do something if you wanted. There ARE liberal and left wing American readers of these forums who like to be made aware of this sort of stuff. I sure as hell know that I appreciate it when my foreign friends make me aware of something that Australia is doing that didn’t get traction in the media here.

I say this because I sometimes get the impression that people take criticism of a policy (such as demanding to know your sex life if you want to visit, or the Iraq war) as criticism of them personally. I doubt anyone here posts with that intention in mind.