Travel and Privacy, Surveillance, Civil Liberties, and Human Rights

Articles, presentations, and interviews by Edward Hasbrouck

author of “The Practical Nomad” and consultant to the Identity Project (PapersPlease.org)

“Liberty of movement is an indispensable condition for the free development of a person.” [United Nations Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 27: Freedom of movement; used as the epigraph to the 4th and 5th editions of The Practical Nomad: How to Travel Around the World]

• FAQs about Travel Privacy
  • Why does the privacy of travel data matter? (intro to my article that won a 2003 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award for investigative reporting from the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation)
  • What’s in a Passenger Name Record (PNR)? (includes information about the computerized reservations systems that host and store PNR data)
  • Advance Passenger Information System (APIS)
  • PNR examples and data flows from my presentation at Computers, Freedom, and Privacy 2003
  • What records does the government keep about my travels?
  • Logs of travellers’ movements on passport RFID chips
  • How to request your travel records (with examples and sample forms)
  • “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” (Not)
    
    
• Airline reservations insecurity: “record locators” as passwords for access to PNR data
  • Who’s watching you while you travel? PNR access through insecure Web sites (2002)
  • Identity theft from a discarded boarding pass (2006)
  • How safe is airline passenger data? Not secure at all. (2016)
  • Public demonstration of airline reservation hacking. Is this new? No. (2016)
  • CRS/GDS companies and travellers’ privacy (2016)
  • BBC interview: What can I do to protect my PNR data? (2017)
  • Unresponsive comments from the Amadeus CRS/GDS company (2017)
  • Another demonstration of CRS/GDS insecurity (2019)
  • Another “record locator as password” scandal. Why hasn’t this been fixed? (2020)
  • Who leaked the changes to Sen. Ted Cruz’s airline reservations? (2021)
  • My complaint to the European Commission (2017)
  • European Commission doesn’t want to enforce its CRS rules (2019)
  • European Commission rejects my complaint against CRSs (2021)
    
    
• FAQs about Freedom of Movement as a Human Right
  • Freedom To Travel As A Human Right
  • “Freedom To Travel Act of 2021” introduced in Congress
  • Does the REAL-ID Act mean I have to show ID to fly? (No.)
  • What’s the real story about the REAL-ID Act and air travel?
  • Forms DS-5513 and DS-5520: “Long Form” passport applications
  • A new, virtual Berlin Wall? A new “Silicon Curtain”?
  • Thoughts on the Stasi and the TSA
  • Permission to travel (“Mother, may I?”)
  • Unanswered questions at Dulles Airport
  • Notes from the first “No-Fly” trial
    
    
• Air travel FAQs and white papers from the Identity Project (PapersPlease.org)
  • How the US violates the right to travel
  • FAQ: U.S. government monitoring of social media of travellers
  • FAQ: Searches at airports and U.S. borders
  • Do airlines have to give copies of all my reservations to the government? (Yes, but they shouldn’t.)
  • Secure Flight FAQ
  • FAQ: REAL-ID and ID to fly
  • FAQ: No-fly lists and no-fly decisions
  • ICAO mandates worldwide government surveillance of air travelers
  • Precog in a Box: How ICAO and U.N. mandates for travel surveillance and control are being implemented
  • FAQ: Does an airline pilot have the right to refuse to let you fly?
  • FAQ: Your rights at the airport
  • FAQ: Searches at airports and U.S. borders
  • How to get a refund if you aren’t allowed to fly
  • “Carrrier sanctions” and the rights of refugees
    
    
• Briefings and interviews on travel privacy, surveillance, civil liberties, and human rights:
  • Video briefings:
    • C-SPAN: Surveillance and control of travellers (30 min.)
    • Cato Institute: The REAL-ID Act and ID to fly (15 min.) (More)
    • Reason TV: Is Silicon Valley building the infrastructure for a police state? (10 min.)
  • Public radio interviews:
    • NPR News: Privacy and Airline Reservation Records (4 min.)
    • Texas Public Radio: The REAL-ID Act and the right to travel (15 min.) (More)
    • Public Radio International: DHS plans to gather social media information (7 min.)
  • Print interviews:
    • Interview with Business Week on travel data, privacy, and the need for a Federal travel privacy law (2003)
    • Antiwar.com: “Ed Hasbrouck versus the TSA: The Practical Nomad-turned-air security watchdog”
  • Interviews and articles in other languages:
    • Zeit.de (Reisen): “In dieser Datenbank steht, wer mit wem schläft”
    • Golem.de: “Fluggastdatenspeicherung”: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Video
    • LeMonde.fr (Technologies): “Les boîtes noires de l’accord sur les données passagers”
    • DeCorrespondent.nl: “Dit gebeurt er allemaal achter de schermen als je naar de VS vliegt”
    • Other interviews and news reports in French, German, and Dutch
      
      
• Testimony on travel privacy, surveillance, civil liberties, and human rights
  • Testimony to the TSA on “Secure Flight” (2007)
  • Testimony to the Canadian Parliament on PNR data (2010)
  • Testimony to the European Parliament on PNR data (2010)
  • Testimony to the European Parliament on PNR data (2011)
  • Testimony to the U.S Dept. of Transportation on “Consumer Privacy and Air Travel” (2013)
  • Joint comments of consumer organizations to the FTC on travel privacy (2009)
  • Joint comments of consumer and civil liberties organizations to the DOT on travel privacy (2013)
    
    
• Edward Hasbrouck v. U.S. Customs and Border Protection
  • Why I sued the Department of Homeland Security
  • FAQ: Hasbrouck v. CBP
  • After more than a year, my first day in court
  • First rulings in our lawsuit over DHS travel records
  • Hasbrouck v. CBP dismissed. What have we learned?
    
    
• Responses to requests for records about my travel
  • U.S. Department of Homeland Security / U.S. Customs and Border Protection
  • Air Canada and Canadian Border Services Agency (complaint to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada)
  • KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (since merged with Air France)
  • Air France
  • Lufthansa
    
    
• Computers, Freedom, and Privacy (CFP) and Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection (CPDP) conferences
  • Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening 2 (CAPPS-II): “Total Travel Information Awareness” (CFP 2003, New York, NY)
  • Travel Data and Privacy (CFP 2004, Berkeley, CA)
  • Travel ID and the Travel Panopticon (CFP 2005, Seattle, WA)
  • RFID chips in passports (CFP 2005, Seattle)
  • Your Reputation Precedes You: The Transfer of European Union Passenger Name Records to the U.S. and Canada (CFP 2007, Montréal)
  • Recent Developments in the USA in Relation to the Protection of Travel Data (CPDP 2009, Brussels)
  • SWIFT, PNR, and more: European cooperation with USA dataveillance in the “war on terror” (CFP 2010, San Jose, CA)
  • A Clash of Civilizations? The EU and US Negotiate the Future of Privacy (Opening plenary, CFP 2011, Washington, DC)
  • President Trump, Populist Politics, and the Prospects for Privacy (CPDP 2017, Brussels)
    
    
• Updates and More
  • Policy analysis and white papers from The Identity Project
  • My articles from the the Identity Project blog (PapersPlease.org)
  • Other organizations concerned with freedom of movement and the human rights of travellers
  • Articles on “Privacy and Travel” from my blog