We’ve all heard that “Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom“*. In light of the current assault on our constitution, truer words were never spoken! After the TIA (Total Information Awareness) proposal (which congress has put on hold), and the proposed update called (un)Patriot II, we now find another bold attempt to circumvent privacy rights. The US Department of Transportation, in the words of the PrivacyActivism group, “proposes to add a system of records to the list of DOT Privacy Act Systems of Records that are exempt from one or more provisions of the Privacy Act. Public comment is invited.”
They go on to elaborate: “The DOT is asking for approval for a system that would allow files with extensive information to be kept for every airline passenger. The proposal asks for approval to store essentially any information in the system, using such open-ended terms as