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MOST PEOPLE WOULDN’T be overly familiar with what a PNR is.
Essentially, a Passenger Name Record is the detail of all data involved in the booking of a passenger flight which most airlines share with each other, ostensibly should a passenger need to book connecting flights or a hotel with a separate carrier.
So the kind of data involved would range from names and email addresses to IP addresses, religion, credit card details, habits etc. Once a reservation is created, a permanent PNR exists. If you haven’t seen one before, it’s a little disconcerting:
In the wake of January’s Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks in Paris there is a renewed clamor in the halls of the EU for increased security measures to prevent further attacks.
The most immediate reaction has been in the form of a draft report regarding an EU-wide PNR.
Legislation regarding such a record was defeated at the EU’s Civil Liberties Committee in 2013 due to the dubious nature of its handling of data protection and privacy law, but the report on a potential new record will be presented to the European Parliament by Timothy Kirkhope before the end of February.
Kirkhope has described the EU PNR as “very important when dealing not only with recent events like the terrible terrorism attacks in Paris, but also of course with major criminality.”
I don’t claim that it is the only measure we need to protect ourselves, but it is a very useful one. We’re not looking at profiling here, we’re just looking for patterns that could indicate criminality.
Should all things go to plan for the British MEP and his fellow agitators legislation could be enacted on the EU PNR before the end of 2015.
Non-state PNRs are supported by airlines worldwide, but the most infamous is probably the state-sanctioned record in the US (American travel-writer and freedom-of-information blogger Edward Hasbrouck details issues regarding American PNRs on his website The Practical Nomad).
TheJournal.ie spoke to TJ McIntyre, lawyer with online privacy campaigners Digital Rights Ireland, about what the establishment of an EU PNR will mean for us. What he had to say is a little worrying.
“A lot of them already exist, but just because you’re already doing bad things doesn’t mean you should do more, it’s just so open to abuse,” he says.
The American PNR has effectively turned into a no-fly list, with the likes of the FBI using it coerce American Muslims to become informers for example.
In the EU there’s absolutely no doubt that it would be used in the same way. We already have state intelligence agencies hacking travel agents and hotel bookings, this will just legitimise that further.
McIntyre is likewise quite cynical about the timing of the calls for legislation, seeing it as “opportunism at the highest level”.
It’s absurd really, for each terrorist incident in the last 15 years the perpetrators have invariably already been on the authorities’ radar.
You can’t complain about a lack of resources for intelligence services and then create a behemoth like this. You don’t search for a needle in a haystack by making the haystack bigger.
“Not only that, but the whole thing is on very shaky ground legally,” agrees McIntyre.
Leaked EU parliamentary advice in recent times has put PNR systems very much under question. They’re fundamentally dubious from the point of view of the law.
Despite his concerns however, McIntyre is far from convinced that an EU PNR is an inevitablity.
Well the EU has recognised the significance of all this in the past. They’re very capable of holding off, and hopefully they will.
This could get very interesting.
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Every terrorist incident is used to pick away at your right to privacy..bit by bit…until you have none.
That’s definitely what’s happening. Can I share your tin-foil?
Try a blindfold as well as a gag.
Hes already got the blindfold securly in place, and both hands clasped over his ears
Gentlemen keep it civil. Save it for the bedroom ;)
Ah haaa! Every fool knows the bedroom is THE WORST place to try to keep secrets. You see, every pillow ever manufactured is permeated by NSA nano-technology that not only records sound and vision but actually records your dreams and sends them to the pre-crime unit in the World Bank HQ in Geneva.
I haven’t had privacy since 2002 myself lol.
This should never be allowed to happen.
It already happens.
It really does it is no a new idea has been used to identify drug smugglers for eons
I know that PNR’s happen, but not on the scale envisaged in this article. I work in the travel industry and create PNR’s on a daily basis and the most information needed is just your name. The USA and Australia ask for a bit more information from your passport but that’s it.
If this disturbs you then read ‘Nowhere to hide’ by Glenn Greenwald, this is small potatoes compared to some of what theyre up to.
Seeing the US and to a lesser extent UK slide towards a police state post 911 has been v sad. Thought crime laws, actual precrime laws, saving keystrokes, hacking citizens webcams, millitarized policing…
It makes me so glsd to live in a FREE country. If you look all through the troubles we never even did internment let alone mass survalance, its not like they could not, our govts got sweeping emergency powers..but we never gave in to the darkness, thats something we can b damn proud of.
@Ryan. Maybe you don’t remember the troubles when Section31 of the Broadcasting Act was brought in by the Irish government to censor free speech
Where we could keep track of terrorists as they move around. We could find escaped criminals who flee here or leave here. We could find people who go missing to see if they took flight.
It’s common sense. It’s just wrong it took so long
Steve it was not used for censorship of free speech it was used to censor SF who at the time refused to recognize the Irish state or the elected govt and were engaged in (whatevet you think of it) a violent campaign.
Its just not comparable to monitori g every citizens keystoke, bugging your own troops phone sex, using drones to murder medics and firemen that respond to a missile strike, giving retrospective immunity to phone companies for breaking privacy laws, locking people up forever your own millitary tribunals have declared innocent…its just not the same we never came close to any of that and the leaks show we dont participate in this stuff, G2 and GardaSpecial Branch do not do mass survalance
@Ryan. Section31 was censorship and a curtailment of freedom of speech…just because it was directed at SinnFein does not take away from the fact that it was a severe form of censorship by the Irish Government.
I dont agree with it. But its not comparable in any way to the UK and US post 911.
Our constitutional emergency powers clause allows the state to do anything except execute you in a state of emergency. We had an SOE from late 70s to 1998 did you see anything like the BushObama abuses here then? The Offences Against the state act allows the Minister for Justice to issue an arrest, search and internment warrant for anyone for any reason for any length of time…its never been used post wwii…were not comparable with the US and UK
@Ryan. Sorry. I just thought your original comment was a bit naïve painting a rosy picture of the way the Irish state conducted itself during the troubles. It suspended free speech and there was of course surveillance and collusion with security forces in the North. I also don’t remember the Gardai or special branch needing a search warrant when doing house to house searches for Don Tidey or Dr.Herrema.
You dont always need a warrant even in ordinary law, a common misconception. I guess its a perspective thing, the sb had their abuses definitly, my point is we are and were still a cou try with strong Republican and democratic values, the US and UK are not, theyve gone too far.
Ive never seen the guards, even the armed support units, driving apcs and carrying millitary grade rifles like the M4, thats becoming routine in the US now. Look at stop n frisk in NY weve never had anything that heavy handed here
Maybe that is because you can’t just walk into a pawn shop in Dublin and buy a gun Ryan like you can in the States so comparing Ireland with the States when it comes to crime is ludicrous
What does buying a gun in the states got to do with crime?
Stephen a very different thing. Section 3 wes introduced to avoid giving terrorists the oxygen of publicity. It worked. Every state is entitled to defend itself. That is a very different thing from mass surveillance of a population.
I was replying to Ryan’s comment if you had of looked and he was talking about the police in the States and the guns they carry so hope that answers your question
The EU doesn’t even know how many Europeans are in the mile High club….
Well this isn’t Orwellian at all
As I stated before
The powers that be use terrorist attacks as a way to invade our privacy in the name of safety.
Welcome to the New World Order.
Glen the gulf of Tonkin terrorist attack was staged and later admitted by the CIA. This was used to ramp up the invasion of Vietnam. It should have caused mass riots in the U.S. And Vietnam bit people don’t give a F anymore
John
That’s a prime example of a false flag attack.
You should look up the attack on the USS Liberty.
It was during the six day war, Israel attacked this ship in order to drag America into the war.
It’s all come out now.
And we all know what President Johnsons first act as President was
If it bothers anyone just remember that the EU don’t care what tacky sh*tehole you visit to drink your own body weight in sex on the beach.
Every member state has their own police and or intelligence services to monitor, prevent and deal with terrorism.
The EU as an entity has no business involving itself in these matters in the manner proposed.
Anyone seen a post from Frank, no seriously I heard a rumour he was scooped up and sent to gitmo for reeducation. Could be in room 101 as we type.
More like his cover was blown and he actually was a CIA operative trained to lure radical anti-American radicals.
Thats every truthers wet dream, but i doubt our kids history books will read “..and the whole conspiracy was blown wide open by youtube accout melikebigtitsnass1990 who noticed a puffs of smoke out the bottom floors as the tower came down and knew it was controlled demolition”
The last thing I asked him was, was he using the Roman alphabet or the Hebrew alphabet for the numeral values of the letters?
Being fed food for his thoughts in a nice secure institution 666, 616 etc
It is 616 now… Snorri?
He’s not posting today as it’s 21/2/2015, or 2 x 1 x 2 x 2 x 1 x 5 = 40 and,
40 x ( AerLingus share price + Diageo share price + something else random ) = 666
Harold, you never know… for some people life can be very cruel to them and they just try to find a reason for it? It might not be his fault at all, walking a mile in their shoes and all that, is true too.
So secret government departments are keeping track of people’s travel details and personal information and will probably use them for some nefarious mass neural-programming project to ensure the Illuminati, ie the global banking infrastructure, maintain control over all humanity.
Or some such shyte.
I think there is a common sense level of concern between Alex Jones ’911 was an inside job via the illuminati and thinking, stupidly, that a power structure will never abuse its power.
I don’t know why some people get worked up over stuff like this, if the intelligence agencies of any country want to watch what your up to they will use any means at their disposal illegal or not it has happened for decades if you are not a criminal or terrorist it should not bother you in the slightest what information is kept on you as it will never cause you any problems, they can watch what I’m doing and keep records of any flights I take all they want I have nothing to hide so work away men in black but for all you people with something to hide I’d watch my back, and another thing I’d like my DNA to be taken as well and kept on record for life as I think everybody’s should be just in case I ever murder or rape someone they won’t have to look too far to catch me, nothing to hide so nothing to worry about is what I think anyway
Yeah, it’s about principle.
Never cause you problems if u did nothing wrong…oh the painful ignorance of that comment…do you know how many are in gitmo right now who the Americans admit are innocent? Did you know they tapped their own troops phone calls? That they arrested and strip searched the partner of a journalist critical of them?
Power corrupts, by nature historys taught us that over n over. You dont think Mikey at the NSA will abuse those master search protocols to see what a personal enemy or ex gf has on their laptop? Come on!
That is why their should be protocols in place so these powers can’t be abused, I’m not naive to think that their is no bad apples in these intelligence agencies but I’d hope that before any action is taken on someone that it is verified properly and protocols in place so no such abuses can take place, no matter what anyone says you will have negative feedback on it as you are simply into conspiracy theories, you can’t say what goes on in gitmo as you have never been there or have you ? You just believe what someone else has wrote about it so whatever floats your boat but I’m telling you it would not bother me personally and we all have the right to think and behave as we like as this is a free country and if you have problem living under any countries rules then move
And please tell me Ryan what problems it would cause me for an intelligence agency to know every part of my life ? I’ll get the tinfoil hat ready for your reply :)
The problem Darren, is if the definition of what is wrong changes. Then maybe you are doing wrong.
Not too long ago Europe was ruled by fascists. That could happen again. Would you be so ready to let them have all your information then?
How many more Jews would have died if the nazis had a database on everyone?
It’s not all crazy tinfoil mind control conspiracies you know. A history lesson in politics shows why this is a terrible idea.
Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.
Benjamin Franklin
So pay in cash and give a ministers email address lol
I though TJ McIntyre of Digital Rights Ireland face was photoshopped onto Harry Potter, sorry lol.
I build these PNRs at work all the time, we can only put in the info you want in it. Well, you’re name and flight details have to be correct or the airline will deny you’re boarding
have your say