The (Labour) government is in the process of establishing yet another of their surveillance databases. This particular piece of technology is designed to track the movements of British nationals travel movements OVERSEAS and it is for this reason HU should be aware.

The database is in the unpublicised part of the government’s so-called “e-borders” programme, intended to count everyone who comes in and out of the country by 2014. The existence and location for the database was secret and accidentally revealed by the Home Secretary last week. At the moment the UK Border Agency is running a pilot which monitors the travel movements of passengers on “high-risk” routes (i.e. the kinds of places WE like to travel to) from a small number of airports, including Heathrow and Gatwick. Under the new scheme, once a person buys a ticket to travel to or from the UK by air, sea or rail, the carrier will deliver that person’s data to the agency. The computerised pattern of every individual’s travel history will be stored for up to 10 years. The database is also expected to monitor people’s travel companions so that over time, a "pattern of associations" can be established.

Located in Wythenshawe, near Manchester and staffed by 600 people, half of which are technicians the rest police, immigration, MI5 & MI6 officers. The data is also expected to be shared with foreign governments, agencies of foreign governments and if the practice of the DVLA is to be followed, sold to commercial entities. Surveiled UK citizens are not permitted to know to what use the information is to be put, which foreign governments or agencies of foreign governments the data is shared with and what data those entities supply in return to the UK agency - i.e. their movements in that country and places stayed, with whom they might associate in a foreign country.

It is unclear how you can be tracked on a bike except that “high-risk” routes as defined by this paranoid government and not using the kind of transport that can easily be tracked would immediately flag you up as “a person of interest” and in say Morocco, that might be open to interpretation and not a good thing to be.

One of my motivations for travelling is to escape the ID cards, CCTV and the sinister surveillance society the UK is sadly becoming but it seems the government is trying to find ways to keep me AND YOU under surveillance even when we are outside of our own country. Of course if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear. Do you.

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So they're going to count me out and count me in. I thought they already did that when I handed my passport over and they checked me on the database or is this something different?

It is indeed something very different. Although part of border control, this is a surveillance database intended to track and store your movements not just into and out of the country but where you go and with whom you associate so that inferences may be drawn. Under the RIPA laws failure to disclose to a designated official data they request (i.e. which countries you intend to visit and why) will be a criminal offence and may result in you being denied "the privallege" of travel through the confiscation of your passport and from 2012 your identity card which of course, will also be your driving license too by then.

If your "driving privileges" are also withdrawn (via the database onto your ID card) you will not be able to ride your bike or obtain insurance for it (you'll need your ID card to do that). Your internal movements can then be tracked by another of the linked databases every time you purchase a ticket to travel on public transport.

When people talked about the database state and the surveillance society, this is what they meant. Neat huh?

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is there any external links to confirm this information?

knock yourself out Tommy:-

BBC NEWS | UK | Government plans travel database

Government compiles travel records database - UK Politics, UK - The Independent

Spy centre will track you on holiday -Times Online

there's plenty more about this and related issues for those who've had their heads burried in the sand for the last five years.

Just as a further example, hidden in the new Coroners and Justice Bill is one clause (cl.152) amending the Data Protection Act. It would allow ministers to make 'Information Sharing Orders', that can alter any Act of Parliament and cancel all rules of confidentiality in order to use information obtained for one purpose to be used for another.

This single clause is as grave a threat to privacy as the entire ID Scheme. Combine it with the index to your life formed by the above database and the planned National Identity Register and everything recorded about you anywhere could be accessible to any official body or foreign government or agency of a foreign government.




Also, under the US "Patriot Act" any US company must disclose to the US government and data they hold even if that data is held in a foreign country or foreign subsidiary. It is a federal offence to reveal the fact that the US government even made that order. Why is this relevent you may ask? Well most of the huge database contracts are held by US companies and inter alia, the US government so fingers crossed when travelling through i.e. Jordan that you don't share a name or even an association with a "person of interest"...

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I don't see why people assume this is such a bad thing, what difference does it really make to me if the government knows what flights / trips I have done and also who with?

Genuinely I am not trying to troll or anything, I just don't see it as such a big deal.