Air America breaking news: "USA to fingerprint ALL visitors !!!"

On Sat, 03 Apr 2004 15:32:04 -0400, nobody wrote:

Peter Kemp wrote:
I'm just glad I get an exemption from the process thanks to a nice
shiny government visa, because otherwise I would *ot* come to the US

I thought it was currently the opposite: all those entering on a visa are fingerprinted.
In october, it will be all travellers whether on a real visa, or a 90 day visa waiver.

For standard tourist visas you are correct, anyone holding one goes
through the process. I've got a different type of visa as I'm in the
US on UK government business. Which is exempt from the procedures (and
also means that I tend to spend less time at immigration even than US
citizens).
Still takes too bloody long though - of the 30+ countries I've been
to, entering over half I've never had to spend more than 20 seconds at
immigration (and quite often just walk past showing the *outside* of
my UK passport), and I'll be buggered if they're getting my
fingerprints without a fight.

---
Peter Kemp

Life is short - drink faster

In article ,
Peter Kemp wrote:

Still takes too bloody long though - of the 30+ countries I've been
to, entering over half I've never had to spend more than 20 seconds at
immigration (and quite often just walk past showing the *outside* of
my UK passport), and I'll be buggered if they're getting my
fingerprints without a fight.

Really funny.

The folks from countries with government-sponsored health care, with the
government knowing the results of their last rectal exams, are worried
about fingerprints...

--
cirby at cfl.rr.com

Remember: Objects in rearview mirror may be hallucinations.
Slam on brakes accordingly.

On Sun, 04 Apr 2004 02:13:03 GMT, Chad Irby wrote:

In article ,
Peter Kemp wrote:

Still takes too bloody long though - of the 30+ countries I've been
to, entering over half I've never had to spend more than 20 seconds at
immigration (and quite often just walk past showing the *outside* of
my UK passport), and I'll be buggered if they're getting my
fingerprints without a fight.

Really funny.

The folks from countries with government-sponsored health care, with the
government knowing the results of their last rectal exams, are worried
about fingerprints...


Oh dear, you really really should save up and try to get out of your
village up in the hills there, and see a bit of the real world at
least once.
--==++AJC++==--

In article ,
AJC wrote:

Oh dear, you really really should save up and try to get out of your
village up in the hills there, and see a bit of the real world at
least once.

Hey, nice insult. I'm not only right, but *you* knew I was right..

By the way, my "little village in the hills" is a city of over a
million...

--
cirby at cfl.rr.com

Remember: Objects in rearview mirror may be hallucinations.
Slam on brakes accordingly.

"Chad Irby" wrote in message
. com...
In article ,
AJC wrote:

Oh dear, you really really should save up and try to get out of your
village up in the hills there, and see a bit of the real world at
least once.

Hey, nice insult. I'm not only right, but *you* knew I was right..

By the way, my "little village in the hills" is a city of over a
million...


That's hardly a "city" by our standards.
And do you ever leave it?

"Chad Irby" wrote in message
om...
In article ,
Peter Kemp wrote:

Still takes too bloody long though - of the 30+ countries I've been
to, entering over half I've never had to spend more than 20 seconds at
immigration (and quite often just walk past showing the *outside* of
my UK passport), and I'll be buggered if they're getting my
fingerprints without a fight.

Really funny.

The folks from countries with government-sponsored health care, with the
government knowing the results of their last rectal exams, are worried
about fingerprints...

You really think the UK governemnt is interested in such things? Reductio
ad absurdum is a weak form of argument.

In any case, what you obviously do not know is that hospital records are not
held on computer he they are paper records. This causes some problems
(mine have been lost in the past for a while, and when I use different
hospitals, they have to be sent by courier) but it does ensure that not
everyone can look at them.

Each GP (the primary care doctor) has its own computer system, not linked to
others.
Privacy is important here.

Try to find anyone British, who has ever needed to use the NHS, who would
like to get rid of it.

"Chad Irby" schreef in bericht
om...
In article ,
Peter Kemp wrote:

Still takes too bloody long though - of the 30+ countries I've been
to, entering over half I've never had to spend more than 20 seconds at
immigration (and quite often just walk past showing the *outside* of
my UK passport), and I'll be buggered if they're getting my
fingerprints without a fight.

Really funny.

The folks from countries with government-sponsored health care, with the
government knowing the results of their last rectal exams, are worried
about fingerprints...

Universal health care has nothing to do with government officials have
access to medical records. You need to study these things a bit more before
making absurd claims.

Sjoerd

Sjoerd wrote:
Universal health care has nothing to do with government officials have
access to medical records. You need to study these things a bit more before
making absurd claims.

Well technically, since health care workers are employed by the government,
then it is true that government employees have access to your records :-)

The thing is that governments have very strick privacy laws. And in most
civilised nations, there are also strong nationwide privacy laws in effect.

The problem is when you have a country that lacks such strick privacy laws and
where government agencies share data at will and are allowed to provide data
to private enterprise which have no legal obligation to protect data, then
there is leakage.

In the USA, you have no idea to whom your HMO is sharing your data with. But
in Canada, you know that your provincial government is the sole body with
access to the data and that it enforces strict privacy laws. Furthermore,
because health care is universal, a government doesn't care if you are
terminally ill or in excellent shape, whereas in the USA, the HMOs really do
care because they would rather not insure the terminall ill as a new customer.

And again, it is your own government that knows about you.

Now, when you look at fingerprints or other very personal identification, it
will be a foreign government (USA) with no defined privacy laws that will hold
your personal information and not only have you no idea what will happen to
it, but also no legal right over their holding your information. Will you be
able to verify that they have destroyed your prints after X years ? Will you
be able to verify that they have not passed your prints to someone else ?
(think access to information). Because one is not a citizen of the USA, one
will have very little rights to access personal information about yourself
held by the USA.

nobody wrote:

Well technically, since health care workers are employed by the government,
then it is true that government employees have access to your records :-)



Most countries fund health insurance, like the US does with Medicare, not
public HMO's like the UK National Health Service where employees are,
practically speaking, like civil servants. Even there, doctors can be found
in independent offices taking some of their income contracting to NHS.

gld

"Gary L. Dare" wrote in message
...
nobody wrote:

Well technically, since health care workers are employed by the
government,
then it is true that government employees have access to your records :-)



Most countries fund health insurance, like the US does with Medicare, not
public HMO's like the UK National Health Service where employees are,
practically speaking, like civil servants. Even there, doctors can be
found
in independent offices taking some of their income contracting to NHS.

gld


You don't know much about the NHS, do you?