Some of you may know that I took a vacation last week. My wife and I took a cruise with some friends. I thought it might be interesting to talk about some privacy issues I encountered.
My Graphene PixelMy Graphene Pixel
Once the ship was far enough from the coast to exceed my local carrier range, the cruise line offers satellite internet. I was warned beforehand that the ship's wifi would not work with a vpn, but that wasn't entirely accurate. I had to change my standard settings to allow connectivity without VPN protection, but I was able to surf the web and access some web sites with the vpn. Some sites were impossible to connect to. SN was surprisingly easy to access. Generally speaking, I observed that my Pixel lost connectivity much more than my friends' assorted iphone and stock Android devices, but it wasn't too bad. I was willing to accept some inconvenience.
Biometrics US CustomsBiometrics US Customs
I don't know how many stackers have experienced this yet, but it's creepy as hell. My face was photographed upon boarding the ship. When disembarking after the cruise, there was no need to show your passport. You just stood in front of a biometric analyzer. It took about 30 seconds to recognize my face and clear me to leave the ship. Here's more info: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/other-visa-categories/safety.html
I have the real sense that the world has changed, and I have lost my will to resist these privacy invasions. I often trade privacy for convenience. I remember that I resisted easypass technology for years. I would patiently wait to pay my toll with cash while everyone with the magic tag zipped by. I guess the alternative to biometrics is to either sneak across borders or become a stationary hermit.
do these magic words I would like to opt out still work?
wonders if everyone is consenting by default because they are led to believe this is now how things are done, and they have no alternative? or is there no alternative?
if only we knew of a lawyer who could look into this? :)
I opted out of the biometrics at TSA recently. Instead of standing in front of the camera and having it take my picture, the agent just reviewed my identification document. Worked fine
this is the way it may not make much difference peeps can reason and say yet it all has to start somewhere today
If only we could find a lawyer who wasn't so damned lazy?
peter parker spider man once let a goon go..
it could be an educational endevour men need missions! the crusade is calling :)
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opt out plebs be punk rock
if not you, then who?
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It is easier by design. It is arranged so that practical considerations dictate compliance. Opting out will be greeted by necessity of personal sacrifice.
https://m.stacker.news/22961
Exactly. I'm a fool
I will be persecuted in my home country for owning guns, so I would like to claim asylum here.
Next time, pretend to be a "refugee", they will even give you money, shelter and food :)
Hard and "actual" true.
Another thing I should have mentioned in the post. It was unseasonably cold as hell when we disembarked the ship. Before getting to the biometric exit area I mentioned, we had to collect luggage in an enclosed, heated area. My friend group was a bunch of seniors. One of them was a woman who was having trouble walking due to recent surgery, and was sensitive to cold. Since our pick up ride was late, we tried to slow walk the process to avoid going out into the freezing cold. The minute we stopped walking, we were hurried along by guards. I finally asked one of them to give us a break, and explained the situation. He pointed to a camera and said that we all were under surveillance, and if he didn't prevent people from standing around for more than 30 seconds there would be an alert, and he would be in trouble. Pretty dystopian.
We are headed towards the big brother who sees everything, if we are not already...
Oof. Good reminder that surveillance is used all the way up the chain.
Wow.
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Welcome back Siggy!
I still hate all of these travel related privacy invasions. I don't know if I'll ever acclimate to them.
Thanks! I know. It makes me want to stay put.
I understand. But maybe that's exactly what they want, that we all stay put. That way they can convince each of us that our own particular pod is the greatest pod in the world, even if it's a shithole.
Seems that "private" Jets and Helicopters is the way to go, private place to land, etc... stack harder.
im sure thats doable for most plebs send me a jet in 15 years when you get there in the meantime adopt an opt out state of mind
I appreciate the first hand info.
You mentioned:
Is your wife a privacy minded individual?
Reason I ask is I found one family's desire to travel to be one of the more problematic activities and I can see how one would stop resisting the privacy invasions. One side wants to have a nice relaxing vacation while the other side has strong privacy principles they don't want to comprise on.
If this is the case any advice/experience you could share on how to manage this family dynamic? Without having both sides being grumpy.
Regarding my wife, she does share my privacy values in theory. In practice, she is far more willing to trade privacy for convenience than me. Regarding the friends we travelled with: My oldest childhood friend is a state government employee. He turned to me when we were getting scanned and said "Big Brother is here. No more privacy " He then laughed and said "good thing we're not criminals." I reflexively said " until they decide we are ", but left it at that.
Is this your friend who watches the lesbian on msnbc?
No. Different friend. That friend won't leave his DC apartment until the bolsheviks are in the streets. (So in a few months)
You should watch this.
view on youtu.beGood response, it's not up to us to decide if we are criminals or suspects or future criminals or suspects.
Applying this to a global scale, and most people have absolutely no idea if they would break laws in some foreign country just by going about their day.
I had to show my face to board a flight in Chicago. I waited to be the last one to board with my son and politely said, "I would prefer not to use the camera". After a moment's pause, she said, "Oh okay" and proceeded to check my documents. No hassle whatsoever. People just don't realize that you CAN opt out.
I wish I would have thought of that.
Were the biometrics not optional?
They were NOT optional. If you read the link in my post, apparently if you're a foreign national who requires a visa, one will not be issued without full fingerprinting.
That's wild. I also traveled recently and at first they tried to tell me biometrics were not optional. But the sign was right there.
Must be a different situation.
You may be right. I really didn't look around or ask. When I responded I was just going by the article I read.
To clarify, face scanning was optional on Int. Flights but fingerprinting was not.
non us plebs have been getting printed fingers for visas since at least mid 2000s, but that doesnt make it easy to follow you everywhere you go in future, unlike biometric face detection. then again home depot seems to do it too now, so that’s ok right? dont give up plebs!
I wonder if you could make a skin toned strip to lay on your cheek that reflects the camera or some shit
Back from the high seas. Just be glad they didn't swab for DNA. That will probably be version 2.0.
I'm sure it's not far off.
It really is incredible how much privacy we have given up for convenience.
opt out, you can do it I believe in you
This is why as bitcoin goes up, private jets will be bought up by bitcoiners who don't want to play along anymore.
The invasion of privacy is real, my city is full of security cameras, also biometric registration is the order of the day, what can we do against this? It's a good question...
Thanks for sharing. We are eyeing up a Disney cruise next year. I guess some stuff to be aware of
Yes. Things have changed since my Disney Cruise days. We took our daughter 17 years ago.
My one cruise was in 2018, and thankfully the biometrics weren't a thing on our ship then (though obviously we needed the passport). That's disappointing to hear.
(We got a very limited ship wifi plan and just used non phone devices to check email once a day to make sure we hadn't missed anything major. It was actually nice being largely offline and having my phone serve as nothing more than a camera.)
Hope you were able to enjoy lots of food, reading, and sights (those were the three things I most loved when we were on the cruise).
Good observations. I did need to check in to SN occasionally, but I did get to catch up on sleep and some reading. It was relaxing.
thanks for your update
Interesting.
The future is here and what await for us is not good.
https://m.stacker.news/22957
It's getting into the whole "mark on the forehead" type stuff.
Privacy is gone when it comes to travel internationally. I don't know if cruises must have what you described because they can potentially hop to multiple countries; I guess they do.
You can't board a domestic flight anywhere without KYCing yourself, so privacy + travel should be expected.
I wouldn't trust anything on someone else's wifi, I would def use a VPN.
thanks for the update
Surely, the biometrics verification is now a necessary thing wherever you go. I don't really feel that this must be understood as an encroachment to someone's privacy. Rather, we must see the positive side of this. I've listened to people opposing this or that without , but I believe when something is done for security reasons and applies to everyone in the same way, we must follow.
Are you being sarcastic or serious?
No, not so serious, not so sarcastic. I am in the middle of it somewhere.
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