From: Gary Howland <gary@systemics.com>
Date: Fri, 2 Aug 1996 09:55:20 +0800
To: "Timothy C. May" <tcmay@got.net>
Subject: Re: Internal Passports
In-Reply-To: <ae26305c070210048f37@[205.199.118.202]>
Message-ID: <3201257B.31D2DE92@systemics.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Timothy C. May wrote:
> 
> Having a "Privacy Ombudsman" is a bone thrown to the proles. I suspect a
> police state like Singapore has such a person.
> 
> And related to the "photo I.D." discussion, most of these nations demand
> that passports be left at hotel desks when checking in. (At least they did
> when I spent 6 weeks travelling through Europe in 1983.) Perhaps the theory
> is that this stops people from running out on their bills, though credit
> cards do the same thing (*). However, the police reportedly inspect these
> passports and enter them into data bases to track movements.

Many still do.  Even ski hire shops in France require a passport, credit
card
or drivers licence to be _left_ with the shop (even hire car companies
don't
do this! - I suppose they've figured out you need your driving licence
...)

I was recently at a hotel in the Netherlands, and they required me to
fill
out a form asking for date and place of birth, passport number etc. etc.
I asked "What do you want this for?" and they replied "Oh, don't worry,
it's not for us, it's for the government"!!!  I look around me at the
dozen
or so people happily giving away these details, including my girlfriend
who later has to be given a lesson on misinformation ... (am I the only
one who fills out every form as Alexei Sayle with bad handwriting?)

Alexei
--
pub  1024/C001D00D 1996/01/22  Gary Howland <gary@systemics.com>
Key fingerprint =  0C FB 60 61 4D 3B 24 7D  1C 89 1D BE 1F EE 09 06 
^S
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