6/3/08

Electronic Leashes and Global Citizens

DHS Announces Pre-Travel Authorization Program for U.S.-Bound Travelers from Visa Waiver Countries:dhs.gov
Release Date: June 3, 2008


Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA)

"The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced the ESTA Interim Final Rule (IFR), which establishes a new online system that is part of the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) and is required by the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007. Once ESTA is mandatory, all nationals or citizens of Visa Waiver Program (VWP) countries who plan to travel to the United States for temporary business or pleasure will require an approved ESTA prior to boarding a carrier to travel by air or sea to the United States under the VWP. The rule does not apply to U.S. citizens traveling overseas."

"If applicants’ destination addresses or itineraries should change after their authorization has been approved, they may easily update that information through the ESTA website."

"Once an ESTA application has been successfully completed and submitted online, the application will be queried against appropriate law enforcement databases. ESTA application data will remain active for the period of time that the ESTA authorization is valid. DHS will maintain this information for an additional year, and then will archive the information for twelve years to allow retrieval of the information for law enforcement and investigatory purposes."
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Pre-travel authorization..."queried against appropriate law enforcement databases" and archived for investigatory purposes. Compared with the two articles linked below, which describe the creation of and the linking of international databases, e.g. EU and the ESTA for starters, which can only lead eventually to a "global database", or what we would have cause to see as the beginning of what we might call global fusion centers. Previously undisclosed (see: 'global citizenship' below), these are apparently the first "interim" details being released regarding the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). Phase one is only for foreigners..what surprises will phase two hold?
and global-citizenship: quote: (3/19/08) "THE EUROPEAN UNION HAS AGREED to link its immigration databases with those of the US in a plan that could result in the routine transatlantic exchange of people's biometrics."

"This will be linked with the US Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), details of which the US has not yet made public."

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