Privacy

7730 readers

178 users here now

A community for Lemmy users interested in privacy

Rules:

Be civil
No spam posting
Keep posts on-topic
No trolling

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

iopq@lemmy.world

Creepy US immigration welcome (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 22 hours ago by trailee@sh.itjust.works to c/privacy@lemmy.world

23 comments fedilink hide all child comments

US citizen here. I recently returned from my first international travel in a few years, and I was unpleasantly surprised by how easy it was to get back into the country.

In the returning citizens line, everyone was directed by an officer to one of three tablets each on a stand about 3-4 feet high. You stuck your face in the right spot for the camera and the tablet turned green. And that was it, free to go. No conversation with a human about where you went, no human verifying your passport, no need for the passport at all. Just a face scan (presumably matching a database of digitized passport photos) and you’re done.

Makes me wonder what the bar is for various local law enforcement or different federal agencies to get access to the database and hook in with surveillance cameras.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 1 points 8 hours ago

That mentality (and I've been guilty of it myself) is part of the problem. The belief or perspective that if it isn't happening to me, near me or in places where I can see ... then it doesn't affect me.

If others are reporting it, showing it, displaying it, talking about it in another part of the country, then it should ring alarm bells for all of us. Just because it isn't happening to us, it does not mean that there is no problem.

The worry is that once we all normalize this kind of behaviour and control by government and public institutions, eventually over time, the more we allow it all ... it will eventually affect us directly as well.

It all harkens back to the poem written by German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller in Post WWII Germany ... 'First They Came'

If we sit idly by and watch them bully immigrants, then eventually they'll move on to another minority, then another, then another and eventually it will become the group of people you are seen as being part of.