USA Data Border Security

The system was authorized by post-Sept. 11 laws, including the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Reform Act of 2002, the Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001, and the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. People expect to be checked when they enter the country and for the government to determine if they're admissible or not, but what they don't expect is for the government to keep a record for 15 years of their comin into the country.

This database collections will be visible only to select government officials. Since June all travelers crossing land borders will need to present a machine readable document, such as a passport or a driver's license with a radio frequency identification chip.The data could be used beyond determining whether a person may enter the United States.

All information may be shared with foreign agencies when relevant to their hiring or contracting decisions. Track everyone you never know!,the system collect: officials record name, birth date, gender, date and time of crossing, and a photo, where available, for U.S. travelers returning to the country by land, sea or air. The same information is gathered about foreign travelers, but it is held for 75 years.The information system will link to a new database, the non "Federal Entity Data System", which is being set up to hold personal information about all drivers in a state's database.

States that do not agree to allow customs to have such large amounts of information may allow the agency to query their databases in real time for information on a traveler.Disclosure of the database is among a series of notices, officials say, to make DHS's data gathering more transparent.Of course, people will say that if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about, but it's hard not to worry about a 15 year record of your international comings and goings, complete with other personal data required for travel, being reviewed by some investigator for some purpose and eithermisinterpreted or shared with an interested third party.