Fingerprints and photographs
I stumbled across an interesting article this morning. Starting on November 20th (last Tuesday), Japan is fingerprinting all foreign visitors and taking their picture. They apparently had done this previously, and then stopped, and then started it up again. And there's been some anger from people about the privacy involved and all that. (Articles here and here.)
What I thought was really interesting, though, was that this isn't something that only Japan is doing. The United States has been fingerprinting and photographing visitors since 2004. But I didn't know that. People who apply for US visas have to provide fingerprints, but I expect that's typical of all visa applications. Of course, as of the end of the year, they're moving from 2 to 10 fingerprints, but that's almost semantics, it's so inconsequential. Starting today, the U.S. Visit program (our fingerprinting-photographing-point-of-entry process) is moving to a full 10-fingerprint scan, too.
And the whole thing doesn't really bother me. I think it's kind of smart, really, having a full database of fingerprints and up-to-date photographs of people. Yeah, it's moving more towards Big Brother and all those dystopian possibilities. There's a Gattaca feeling to it. All they need to add is a little finger-prick needle to the fingerprint scans and then we'd have a DNA database to work from, too.
I'm pretty sure that I should be really disturbed by the whole thing. I'm pretty sure that I should be insulted and concerned about my privacy and all those things. But I don't. Maybe it's because I don't have plans to travel to Japan any time soon and because I'm a US citizen, I don't have to do the whole fingerprinting thing. But I really don't think it's such a bad thing. Especially the photograph thing--I keep thinking of people who go missing on vacations and they don't have a current picture of that person. This process provides that photograph.
But I thought the whole thing was interesting--that Japan and the US are implementing these systems, that I hadn't heard about it until today, that I'm not altogether bothered by it.
Am I the only person who hadn't heard about this until today?
What I thought was really interesting, though, was that this isn't something that only Japan is doing. The United States has been fingerprinting and photographing visitors since 2004. But I didn't know that. People who apply for US visas have to provide fingerprints, but I expect that's typical of all visa applications. Of course, as of the end of the year, they're moving from 2 to 10 fingerprints, but that's almost semantics, it's so inconsequential. Starting today, the U.S. Visit program (our fingerprinting-photographing-point-of-entry process) is moving to a full 10-fingerprint scan, too.
And the whole thing doesn't really bother me. I think it's kind of smart, really, having a full database of fingerprints and up-to-date photographs of people. Yeah, it's moving more towards Big Brother and all those dystopian possibilities. There's a Gattaca feeling to it. All they need to add is a little finger-prick needle to the fingerprint scans and then we'd have a DNA database to work from, too.
I'm pretty sure that I should be really disturbed by the whole thing. I'm pretty sure that I should be insulted and concerned about my privacy and all those things. But I don't. Maybe it's because I don't have plans to travel to Japan any time soon and because I'm a US citizen, I don't have to do the whole fingerprinting thing. But I really don't think it's such a bad thing. Especially the photograph thing--I keep thinking of people who go missing on vacations and they don't have a current picture of that person. This process provides that photograph.
But I thought the whole thing was interesting--that Japan and the US are implementing these systems, that I hadn't heard about it until today, that I'm not altogether bothered by it.
Am I the only person who hadn't heard about this until today?