NationStates Jolt Archive

And you thought that it was only the government or your bank who is after your fingerprint. It looks like hotels may get rid of room keys - you'll just be invited to scan your fingerprint into the system when you check in.

http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/search?p=FINGERPRINT+HOTEL&ei=UTF-8&fl=0&c=news_photos

Meh, it seems like a decent idea, just so long as a data proctection act type thing comes into place and they promise not to keep my fingerprints for more than a week or so after I check out or disclose them to anyone else.

Meh, it seems like a decent idea, just so long as a data proctection act type thing comes into place and they promise not to keep my fingerprints for more than a week or so after I check out or disclose them to anyone else.
I can see new anti-terror laws -

1. All hotels will be required to use the fingerprint registration/lock system.
2. All fingerprint information and location information will be sent in real-time to the government and cross-checked against databases of wanted criminals, and terrorist watch lists.

Hopefully the normally reliable paranoia of the Wealthy will kick in and force nonsense like this to be shut out.
I'm not too worried though, I doubt that the Motel Run By Seedy Pakistanis Located Across The Street From A Strip Club Industry is really paying that much attention to modern technology. They still seem to be amazed by the concept of HBO and battery powered remotes.

uh-oh no more seedy rendevous

Hopefully the normally reliable paranoia of the Wealthy will kick in and force nonsense like this to be shut out.
I'm not too worried though, I doubt that the Motel Run By Seedy Pakistanis Located Across The Street From A Strip Club Industry is really paying that much attention to modern technology. They still seem to be amazed by the concept of HBO and battery powered remotes.

If you pass a law to make it mandatory, it "helps" in the war on terror.

I can see new anti-terror laws -

1. All hotels will be required to use the fingerprint registration/lock system.
2. All fingerprint information and location information will be sent in real-time to the government and cross-checked against databases of wanted criminals, and terrorist watch lists.

Why is this a bad idea? It's secure against the loss or pickpocketing of your key/card (though not against coercion... but then neither are current methods), it's non-invasive, and it may even help police track criminals. I doubt it'll do very much to stop a terrorist, but who knows, it may help.

Keeping a DNA database of everyone, registered at birth, is a similar idea - what's your objection to either of these proposals (i.e. fingerprint/DNA database)? Not being funny, just interested to know :)

Elgesh']Why is this a bad idea? It's secure against the loss or pickpocketing of your key/card (though not against coercion... but then neither are current methods), it's non-invasive, and it may even help police track criminals. I doubt it'll do very much to stop a terrorist, but who knows, it may help.

Keeping a DNA database of everyone, registered at birth, is a similar idea - what's your objection to either of these proposals (i.e. fingerprint/DNA database)? Not being funny, just interested to know :)

It's fine as long as the uses of your fingerprints and DNA are known to you and done with your approval. But who knows?

I remember thinking in the mid-1990s that we were about to enter an age of technologically inspired tyranny the likes of which history has never seen, and the depth and breadth of which we cannot imagine. And unlike former tyrannies, this one will never end.

If you pass a law to make it mandatory, it "helps" in the war on terror.
You're right, all those goddamn terrorist, blowing up Hotels and Motels all over the place!
Doesn't anyone else remember 9/11? Three motels were hijacked by terrorists, and were then slammed, one after another, into the Strip Joint across the road.

Deep Kimchi: I only have a problem with the second point. If it was the other way round then I wouldn't mind at all. Like how they put up wanted posters in places like airports or put mugshots in TV news bulletins.

So the government sends biometric details of wanted criminals to hotels, airports and such. These places check them against the people who are using their services. Alert the authorities if there is a match, else they discard the infomation. Very little need to worry about invasion of privacy. I'd like the government to introduce laws that severely punish the selling on of biometric details or aggregating such data.

It's fine as long as the uses of your fingerprints and DNA are known to you and done with your approval. But who knows?



Oh, OK, got you - it's a practicalities problem, really... Mmm. Well, maybe one for the future rather than now if we lack the requisite safeguards against biometric fraud.

Elgesh']Why is this a bad idea? It's secure against the loss or pickpocketing of your key/card (though not against coercion... but then neither are current methods), it's non-invasive, and it may even help police track criminals. I doubt it'll do very much to stop a terrorist, but who knows, it may help.

Keeping a DNA database of everyone, registered at birth, is a similar idea - what's your objection to either of these proposals (i.e. fingerprint/DNA database)? Not being funny, just interested to know :)

Umm lets see the government or corporations or pretty much anyone will know where you are and what you are doing at all times when you travel. This would only expand to other aspects of life such as your fingerprint being verification for a credit card at the store. You might as well get a chip inserted into your body so they can just pick you up on a big computer map and tune in to the cameras around you. Even if it never went this extreme it is a privacy issue. I don't give a damn if it lowers crime I already think the police abuse their power continuously (not all but many). I don't need them or anyone prying even further into my life.

real life experiance: I live in a small town with a very large University in which much of the town and campus police departments are highly shady characters. It is pretty much a police state and the chiefs and administration do nothing to stop harassment and blatently illegal searches and procedures. I personally have been arrested for underage drinking (long story in which they entered my room arguably illegally anyways) and then slapped with assault on an officer when I got to court unexpectedly. The police report included an entire ordeal of me throwing the cop around the hallway (he was more than twice my size) for a few minutes before his backup arrived. Ignoring the 11 witnesses present and the fact that I was never handcuffed even after "subdued". I didn't have the money or want to take the risk of desputing this in trial so I was left with little choices.

I was forced to hire a lawyer and that charge was removed voluntarily by the police department once he talked to them (hmm wonder why) but I had to go the route of them pretending they were doing it out of kindness. The whole ordeal cost me well over 2000 dollars and countless hours of my time wasted. Not to mention the police report the judge saw never gets changed so she thew the book at me and I had to undergo drug testing for a year at my own expense (always easily clean). I was a month under 20 years old minding my own buissness in my dorm (but yet technically breaking the law)

......aaaand the point it is that people run these systems. Do you want dickheads like that knowing all your whereabouts and activities for months?

If some one wants my fingerprints, they can drug me, kidnap me, and cut them off themselves. I can't see how this would help the 'war on terror' at all. I really doubt the US, or any one else for that matter, has a database full of fingerprints of people they've never caught. Unless they used my plan, of drugging, kidnapping, and cutting off their fingerprints and releasing them so they can be caught by Hotel Security. Same goes for criminals. Unless they already have a record, and their fingerprints are in some database, it's useless.

real life experiance:

You screwing up in your youth, and being involved in an adolescent~police screwup, does not a police state make :)

I'm sorry you had to go through all that, though! Sounds like something you _don't need_ when you're meant to be doing the whole education thing...:(

If some one wants my fingerprints, they can drug me, kidnap me, and cut them off themselves. I can't see how this would help the 'war on terror' at all. I really doubt the US, or any one else for that matter, has a database full of fingerprints of people they've never caught. Unless they used my plan, of drugging, kidnapping, and cutting off their fingerprints and releasing them so they can be caught by Hotel Security. Same goes for criminals. Unless they already have a record, and their fingerprints are in some database, it's useless.

Here's the kind of thing government employees end up doing with your information:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1133910614486&call_pageid=968332188774&col=968350116467

Ontario's drivers' licensing system is rife with crime as rogue employees steal plates and permits and issue phony licences, the provincial auditor general has found.

In his annual report to the Legislature, Auditor General Jim McCarter slammed the Liberals because some transportation ministry staff and private contractors allowed 56,000 documents and licence plates to be stolen and lost.

I was forced to hire a lawyer and that charge was removed voluntarily by the police department once he talked to them (hmm wonder why) but I had to go the route of them pretending they were doing it out of kindness. The whole ordeal cost me well over 2000 dollars and countless hours of my time wasted. Not to mention the police report the judge saw never gets changed so she thew the book at me and I had to undergo drug testing for a year at my own expense (always easily clean). I was a month under 20 years old minding my own buissness in my dorm (but yet technically breaking the law)


I've been in a similar situation, with pot being substituted instead of alcohol. I mean, I'm not hurting any one, I'm not robbing banks, killing people, or blowing up malls, I pay taxes, I vote, I have a job, I work 7 days a week, I've sponsored 2 kids through World Vision, and I donate alot of my time and money to both the local fire station and humane society. But yet 6 months of my life, and about $700 went down the can. Apparently I'm a threat to society. I'm a dangerous criminal, according to the police. I was inevitably found innocent, although I pleaded GUILTY. Which then raises the question, if I was innocent, why was I arrested in the first place? Alot of time and money gets wasted over really stupid, and arbitrary laws. Like drug laws. Those are useless. And drinking age limits, that doesn't seem to stop any one.

The last thing we need is a police state.

I see a sudden camping craze.

Is there no data-protection act in the US?

I see a sudden camping craze.

Is there no data-protection act in the US?

I believe the answer you're looking for is in the Patriot Act.

Here's the kind of thing government employees end up doing with your information

Making fake ID's? Cool.

I know this crazy Isreali guy that doesn't have fingerprints.

What's he going to do?

I know this crazy Isreali guy that doesn't have fingerprints.

What's he going to do?

He's a guy, right? Circumcised, right?

I know this crazy Isreali guy that doesn't have fingerprints.

What's he going to do?

He could always get a scalpel and make his own. Albeit painful, you could probably make some really cool designs or some thing. He'd be the only person on the planet with happy faces and astrological signs as fingerprints. Imagine the publicity.

Elgesh']You screwing up in your youth, and being involved in an adolescent~police screwup, does not a police state make :)

I'm sorry you had to go through all that, though! Sounds like something you _don't need_ when you're meant to be doing the whole education thing...:(

No I realize that story does not make a police state. The overwhelming number of police on duty and their tactics make it a police state. Come here for one weekend and you would see what I'm saying. It is beyond what you would think. ;)

Of course if the power goes out then everyone in a hotel room is screwed. Especially during a fire.

And just to come up with a wild crack-smoking scenario, someone's going to come up with a fingerprint-activated detonator and boobytrap hotel doors with one.

Elgesh']Why is this a bad idea? It's secure against the loss or pickpocketing of your key/card (though not against coercion... but then neither are current methods), it's non-invasive, and it may even help police track criminals. I doubt it'll do very much to stop a terrorist, but who knows, it may help.

Keeping a DNA database of everyone, registered at birth, is a similar idea - what's your objection to either of these proposals (i.e. fingerprint/DNA database)? Not being funny, just interested to know :)


I think it's a bad idea because I don't want anyone to have certain info on me, I think I should be in charge of what info I give out, and I don't trust corperations or the government not to abuse it.

It seems nobody has bothered to note that the article clearly states that this system is being implemented...in MONACO.

The land of rich socialites who, fearing pickpockets will snatch their room key and then steal the diamond encrusted coffee maker from their room, demand a method of entry that can't be stolen.

I work at a hotel, and I can guarantee you, such a thing won't be happening to large hotel chains here in the U.S. anytime soon...maybe a few high-end hotels, but nothing your average joe will be staying at.