when a foreigner goes through customs, their fingerprints and other details are being stored. who has access to all the information?

December 10, 2006 2:41 PM

when a foreigner goes through customs, their fingerprints and other details are being stored. who has access to all the information?

I saw one of these reality-based cop shows the other night where a homicide victim was fingerprinted. the cops were able to pull up a photo of him on their screens in no time - this in spite of the deceased not having a criminal record.

that got me thinking. I have (or had) drivers licenses from california, new york and illinois. my file is on record with the BCIS/INS (I'm on an O-1 visa) and my fingerprints have been stored a gazillion times at airports. then there are of course SSN and tax return information.

so how exposed am I? who can access what kind of information about me? who protects my personal data? anyone know more about these things?

posted by krautland to law & government (4 comments total)

This is the reality of immigration and customs agencies today in the world, but I think it's fair to say that the U.S. is probably the most egregious offender. The Department of Homeland Security in the U.S. has a privacy office, and it's ostensibly their job to secure your personal data. Of course there are a huge number of people in those agencies that can probably access your private data. Here is a copy of their Annual Privacy Report.

There is also a statute on record in U.S. federal law called the Freedom of Information Act, which you can use to access your own records or generic (not referencing a specific person) records at any U.S. agency. Of course said agency can choose to deny those records on national security or other grounds, and you have to pay a cost for accessing them (the cost of doing the research and reproducing the records on paper).

There is no clear cut view of who has access to your records, what their access is limited to, or how your records are shared between agencies. This is an area for which most liberal Americans and I suppose quite a few other political classifications are working very hard on (in terms of trying to convince their legislators to implement regulations that cover this very difficult area).
posted by arimathea at 3:42 PM on December 10, 2006

IBIS
posted by thirteenkiller at 4:18 PM on December 10, 2006

TECS/IBIS is not visible to that many people really. It is pretty much exactly as is stated in the FAQ that 13 linked and even in those cases there are only a handful of people at each agency that have access. Getting permission to see the info is long and arduous, and agents must have a good reason.

The system is not eggregiously offending. SSA, IRS and your local cops and DMV are not given access to the data. Incidentally, legislators do not implement regulations, they implement legislation, which they have done. It is up to the agencies to devise a regulator framework to work within their legislative requirements.

If you were to foia your records, you would actually be surprized at how boring they were.
posted by Pollomacho at 5:09 PM on December 10, 2006

"SSA, IRS and your local cops and DMV are not given access to the data."

I worry about mission creep. It seems likely that more and more people will be allowed access as time goes on.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 9:06 AM on December 11, 2006