The Practical Nomad: Edward Hasbrouck's blog: Technology and Travel

Technology and Travel

Sunday, 22 January 2023

The #NoFly list is a #MuslimBan list

[In case Osama Bin Laden's ghost tries to take a trip to the USA, he was still on the US government's No-Fly List as of 2019.] Swiss hacker maia arson crimew has found versions of the Transportation Security Administration’s “No-Fly” and “Selectee” lists dating from 2019 on insecure Amazon... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 22 January 2023, 09:29 ( 9:29 AM) | Comments (0)

Wednesday, 4 January 2023

What can the U.S. government do to avert another Southwest Airlines meltdown?

Last week, Southwest Airlines cancelled the majority of its scheduled flights for several days after a major winter storm. The airline struggled to get planes and crews back into position and back on schedule, stranding holiday travellers across the country. Holders of tickets on cancelled flights who weren't offered transportation... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 4 January 2023, 07:38 ( 7:38 AM) | Comments (1)

Saturday, 26 November 2022

The Airport of the Future

[Still from 2019 vendor video, Airport of the Future.] I have a new article for the Identity Project, The airport of the future is the airport of today -- and that's not good." This will probably be the busiest week for air travel in the USA since the outbreak... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 26 November 2022, 08:50 ( 8:50 AM) | Comments (0)

Wednesday, 23 November 2022

The Amazing Race 34, Episode 9

Malaga (Spain) - Ronda (Spain) What to do where cash isn't king One of the trends accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic has been the reduced acceptance of cash as a form of payment. Earlier in this season of The Amazing Race, for example, Molly and Emily made a wrong turn... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 23 November 2022, 23:59 (11:59 PM) | Comments (0)

Tuesday, 30 August 2022

FTC consultation on commercial surveillance

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is requesting comments from the public on what the FTC should do about Commercial Surveillance and Data Security. A timely topic, and an important one of the FTC to address. I've submitted written testimony and plan to testify at the public forum to be held... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 30 August 2022, 15:08 ( 3:08 PM) | Comments (2)

Monday, 22 August 2022

Deutsche Telekom "responds" to my complaint -- but not to me.

Deutsche Telekom has responded to my privacy complaint -- not to me but to German journalist Matthias Monroy. Earlier this month, I reported on the failure of Deutsche Telekom to make their U.S. subsidiary, T-Mobile USA, comply with their purportedly "binding corporate rules" on privacy, and the violation of a... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 22 August 2022, 09:15 ( 9:15 AM) | Comments (0)

Tuesday, 9 August 2022

T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom lie to customers

[Some of the categories of information about me that Deutsche Telekom's U.S. subsidiary, T-Mobile USA, has collected, including "olfactory information" -- but that neither T-Mobile USA nor Deutsche Telekom will allow me to see.] With more than a hundred million subscribers in the USA, T-Mobile USA -- the largest... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 9 August 2022, 06:46 ( 6:46 AM) | Comments (12)

Wednesday, 23 March 2022

Using an old 2G or 3G smartphone as a secondary device for travel

In part 1 of this 2-part series, I answered some of the Frequently Asked Questions about the 2G and 3G cellphone "sunset". In part 2, below, I look at what travellers can do with some of the "obsolete" older cellphones and smartphones that will no longer be usable, after the... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 23 March 2022, 07:05 ( 7:05 AM) | Comments (2)

FAQ for international travellers about the 2G and 3G cellphone "sunset"

Cellphone and mobile data network operators around the world are discontinuing service on the frequencies and using the protocols they have been using for the last twenty years. Ten billion or more cellphones and other devices, on which consumers have spent perhaps a trillion U.S. dollars, won't work for voice... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 23 March 2022, 07:04 ( 7:04 AM) | Comments (4)

Wednesday, 14 July 2021

European Commission rejects my complaint against CRSs

Just over four years after finally agreeing to consider my complaint that the lack of passwords and lack of logs of access to Passenger Name Records (PNRs) constitutes a violation of the privacy and data protection provisions (currently under review) of the European Union's Code of Conduct for Computerized Reservations... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 14 July 2021, 13:48 ( 1:48 PM) | Comments (2)

Saturday, 26 June 2021

Air travel, global warming, and the COVID-19 pandemic

I have a long feature today in the Sierra Club's online magazine, SIERRA, on air travel, global warming, and the COVID-19 pandemic: The Biden Administration Wants to "Build Back Better" -- What Could That Mean for Air Travel? In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic reduced air travel and its climate footprint... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 26 June 2021, 05:47 ( 5:47 AM) | Comments (1)

Saturday, 20 February 2021

Who leaked the changes to Sen. Ted Cruz's airline reservations?

After U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) changed his airline reservations to cut short a family vacation in Cancún, Mexico, United Airlines has reportedly launched an internal investigation into how the change to Sen. Cruz's airline reservations became public. Sen. Cruz made reservations for himself and his family for three nights... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 20 February 2021, 10:38 (10:38 AM) | Comments (4)

Wednesday, 16 September 2020

Another "record locator as password" scandal

The hacker known as "Alex" / @mangopdf has reported yet another incident in the continuing 20-year-old saga of the security and privacy vulnerabilities that result from airlines and computerized reservation systems using a short, simple, system-assigned, unchangeable, insecurely handled "record locator" for each passenger name record (airline reservation for one... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 16 September 2020, 20:10 ( 8:10 PM) | Comments (2)

Thursday, 5 December 2019

Will the DHS require mug shots of U.S. citizen travellers?

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, while I was preparing my testimony for a precedent-setting meeting of the Seattle Port Commission on December 10th to consider principles and policies for use of automated facial recognition for identification, surveillance, and control of airline passengers at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, I uncovered a previously-unnoticed... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 5 December 2019, 16:52 ( 4:52 PM) | Comments (2)

Wednesday, 7 August 2019

European Commission doesn't want to enforce its CRS rules

In May 2017 the European Commission finally agreed to investigate my longstanding complaint that the lack of adequate access controls or access logging for airline reservation data stored by computerized reservation systems (CRSs) violates the data protection provisions in Article 11 of the European Union's Code of Conduct for Computerized... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 7 August 2019, 10:56 (10:56 AM) | Comments (2)

Thursday, 14 March 2019

What's wrong with automated facial recognition in airports?

I'm quoted at length in an investigative report by Davey Alba published this week by Buzzfeed News on the US government's use of automated facial recognition to track and control air travellers, in collaboration with airlines and airports that will operate the cameras and share the data for their own... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 14 March 2019, 09:53 ( 9:53 AM) | Comments (0)

Wednesday, 16 January 2019

Another demonstration of CRS/GDS insecurity

Zack Whittaker had a report yesterday for Techcrunch on the latest rediscovery of a continuing vulnerability affecting sensitive personal data in airline reservations that I first reported, both publicly and to the responsible companies, more than 15 years ago: computerized reservations systems and systems that rely on them for data... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 16 January 2019, 21:16 ( 9:16 PM) | Comments (0)

Sunday, 9 December 2018

Review of the E.U. Code of Conduct for reservation systems

The European Commission is conducting a public consultation on the E.U. Code of Conduct for Computerised Reservation Systems. The CRS Code of Conduct, although porly enforced, provides important conusmer and privacy protections for air travellers and airline ticket purchasers worldwide. The CRS Code of Conduct was last reviewed a decade... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 9 December 2018, 22:34 (10:34 PM) | Comments (1)

Friday, 5 October 2018

A review of the Gemini PDA

[Is this the best mobile data communicator for travellers? Or just the smallest one with a usable keyboard?] In September 2017, I wrote one of the first hands-on reviews of the prototype and plans for the Gemini PDA after I was part of a small meet-up in San Francisco... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 5 October 2018, 10:12 (10:12 AM) | Comments (14)

Monday, 27 November 2017

New look for PapersPlease.org

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, The Identity Project deployed the first redesign of its Web site in more than a decade. I hope that the new look and formatting will be easier on the eyes and easier to read on a variety of devices, including those with small screens. For the... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 27 November 2017, 08:56 ( 8:56 AM) | Comments (0)

Thursday, 14 September 2017

Digital devices for world travellers

[Some of the mini-laptops and handheld computers I've used in my travels around the world since 1995. Back row, left to right: Gateway 2000 Handbook 486, Asus Eee PC 901, Panasonic Let's Note CF-R7. Front row, left to right: Psion netBook / Psion Series 7, Psion 5mx, Psion Revo... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 14 September 2017, 18:53 ( 6:53 PM) | Comments (22)

Tuesday, 29 August 2017

What would happen if a robot got hit by a train?

A couple of weeks ago, while waiting for a commuter train back to San Francisco from Redwood City, I had an unexpected and disturbing encounter with one of the "self-driving" motorized delivery robots that are currently being tested in Redwood City. The robot -- a knee-high wheeled box about the... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 29 August 2017, 12:39 (12:39 PM) | Comments (12)

Tuesday, 9 May 2017

European Commission to investigate airline reservation (in)security

Fifteen years after I published my first critique of the extreme insecurity of airline reservations stored by computerized reservations systems (CRSs) and made available without passwords or access logs on public Web sites, and four months after the continued existence 15 years later of those same vulnerabilities was publicly demonstrated... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 9 May 2017, 13:07 ( 1:07 PM) | Comments (8)

Thursday, 30 March 2017

The Amazing Race 29, Episode 1

Los Angeles, CA (USA) - Panama City (Panama) This season of The Amazing Race has a cast composed entirely of "blind date" travelling couples who met their partners for the first time at the starting line of the reality-TV race around the world. Whatever lessons the remainder of the season... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 30 March 2017, 23:59 (11:59 PM) | Comments (3)

Friday, 24 March 2017

Tips for travellers about the "Muslim laptop ban"

The "Muslim laptop ban" goes into effect today: The U.S. government has ordered airlines to prevent passengers from bringing laptop or tablet computers or other electronic devices "larger than a cellphone" (whatever that means) on their person or in carry-on baggage on direct flights between 10 airports in countries with... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 24 March 2017, 12:27 (12:27 PM) | Comments (1)

Tuesday, 14 March 2017

Palantir, Peter Thiel, Big Data, and the DHS

[On the sidewalk in front of Palantir founder and Trump supporter Peter Thiel's house at 2920 Broadway in San Francisco.] On Saturday, I joined an ad hoc group of picketers outside the Pacific Heights mansion of Palantir Technologies founder and Trump supporter Peter Thiel (photo gallery from the SF... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 14 March 2017, 22:57 (10:57 PM) | Comments (2)

Wednesday, 18 January 2017

Unresponsive "comments" from Amadeus

Exactly three weeks after a public demonstration of the insecurity of public Web gateways to computerized reservation systems (CRSs) -- a threat to travellers that I've been writing, speaking and telling the CRS operators about for more than 15 years -- one of those companies has responded to my request... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 18 January 2017, 00:17 (12:17 AM) | Comments (0)

Thursday, 12 January 2017

"What can I do to protect my PNR data?"

Since the recent public demonstration of some of the security and privacy vulnerabilities of airline reservations systems that I've been writing and speaking about for more than 15 years, people have been asking me, "What can I do to protect myself against stalking, harassment, surveillance, and fraud when I travel?"... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 12 January 2017, 21:02 ( 9:02 PM) | Comments (3)

Friday, 30 December 2016

CRS/GDS companies and travellers' privacy

[In the middle of the presentation by SRLabs at 33C3 on Tuesday, Nemanja Nikodijevic discovered that Amadeus had taken its "CheckMyTrip.com" PNR-viewing Web site offline to prevent the vulnerabilities of the site from being demonstrated in real time. Screen capture from CC3C video by permission of SRLabs. Click images... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 30 December 2016, 21:13 ( 9:13 PM) | Comments (5)

Tuesday, 27 December 2016

"Travel data: fraud with booking codes is too easy"

[Some of the privacy and security threats to PNR data and the CRS network, from my testimony in 2013 as an invited expert witness before the Advisory Committee on Aviation Consumer Protection of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Click image for larger version.] Video, slides, and blog post of... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 27 December 2016, 02:54 ( 2:54 AM) | Comments (12)

Monday, 30 May 2016

How can we make airlines respect our privacy?

A decision last week by a California state Court of Appeal in a case involving an airline smartphone app highlights the legal impunity enjoyed by airlines that invade their customers' and passengers' privacy. Delta Air Lines' mobile app collects all the information travellers provide when they buy tickets, reserve seats,... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 30 May 2016, 11:51 (11:51 AM) | Comments (0)

Friday, 13 May 2016

The Amazing Race 28, Episode 12

Shenzhen (China) - Guangzhou (China) - Los Angeles, CA (USA) - Santa Barbara, CA (USA) The final three teams on The Amazing Race 28 managed to make their way back to the USA this week, despite not being allowed to bring their smartphones or any any other Internet-connected devices with... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 13 May 2016, 23:59 (11:59 PM) | Comments (1)

Saturday, 23 April 2016

My GnuPG/PGP public key

For those who want to encrypt their e-mail correspondence with me, I've posted a GnuPG/PGP public key (fingerprint: 0B0B 8F74 CEA3 83AB 97B3 F6AF BB7E F636 165C 22F5) and linked to it from my contact page. Friends who use GnuPG or PGP are invited to contact me to arrange to... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 23 April 2016, 18:52 ( 6:52 PM) | Comments (0)

Wednesday, 20 April 2016

How safe is airline passenger data? Not secure at all.

[PNR data flows. Each node in the network is a point of vulnerability. Click image for larger version.] This week in the German IT news portal Golem and the German weekly news magazine Die Zeit, Hauke Gierow has a deep dive, based in substantial part on a long interview... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 20 April 2016, 12:03 (12:03 PM) | Comments (0)

Friday, 4 December 2015

The Amazing Race 27, Episode 11

Agra (India) - Hong Kong SAR (China) - Macau SAR (China) There were no bicycles on The Amazing Race 27 this week in Hong Kong and Macau, for a change. But the reality-TV travel show did return to a topic I raised a couple of episodes ago and have discussed... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 4 December 2015, 23:59 (11:59 PM) | Comments (2)

Friday, 20 November 2015

The Amazing Race 27, Episode 9

Krakow (Poland) - New Delhi (India) - Agra (India) "We have to rely on them to find it because there's no Google here," Justin says to his partner while they wait for their rickshaw-wallah to confer with a bystander about the location of their next clue on The Amazing Race... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 20 November 2015, 23:59 (11:59 PM) | Comments (4)

Friday, 11 September 2015

Air travel predictions come true: luggage locks and interline ticketing

Two predictions I made a decade or longer ago have come true this week, one about the farcically insecure "TSA-approved" luggage locks, and the other marking a much more significant milestone in the anti-consumer balkanization of the airline industry. (1) Master keys for TSA-approved "Travel Sentry" luggage locks made public.... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 11 September 2015, 10:34 (10:34 AM) | Comments (1)

Friday, 15 May 2015

The Amazing Race 26, Episode 11

Trujillo (Peru) - DFW Airport, TX (USA) - Arlington, TX (USA) - Dallas, TX (USA) One of the unrealities of The Amazing Race as a "reality" television show is that members of the cast have been forbidden to have cameras, phones, or most other electronic devices. I'm old enough to... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 15 May 2015, 23:59 (11:59 PM) | Comments (1)

Friday, 7 November 2014

The Amazing Race 25, Episode 7

Marrakesh (Morocco) - Palermo (Italy) "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." (Not.) There are some things that happen during the filming of The Amazing Race that television viewers never see. Each episode of the reality-TV race around the world is separated from the next by a 12-hour (or occasionally... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 7 November 2014, 23:59 (11:59 PM) | Comments (3)

Thursday, 2 October 2014

Is Google monopolizing flight and airfare search?

Not yet. But as the Washington Post quotes me today: "I don't think that [Google] Fare Search has had much impact on consumers," says Edward Hasbrouck, a critic of the ITA purchase. But he thinks that we"re not out of the woods yet. After the Justice Department"s consent decree expires... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 2 October 2014, 23:31 (11:31 PM) | Comments (1)

Friday, 26 September 2014

The Amazing Race 25, Episode 1

New York, NY (USA) - St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands (USA) ["Hey mister customs man, there's a flea in my passport!"] I got a new personal radio tracking beacon this month. I'll be carrying it with me, wherever I go, whenever I leave the USA for the next ten years.... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 26 September 2014, 23:59 (11:59 PM) | Comments (13)

Monday, 28 July 2014

Speaking at SXSW Eco in Austin, 6-8 Oct. 2014

I've accepted an invitation to speak at the South By Southwest Eco conference on sustainability in Austin, TX, 6-8 October 2014: "Peak Travel" : Envisioning the Post-Air Travel Age The aviation industry hopes to obtain enough cheap biofuel to sustain air travel without diverting land, water, or labor from food... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 28 July 2014, 16:24 ( 4:24 PM) | Comments (6)

Monday, 21 October 2013

"Security Check Now Starts Long Before You Fly"

"Security Check Now Starts Long Before You Fly" (by Susan Stellin, The New York Times, 21 October 2013, page A1): The Transportation Security Administration is expanding its screening of passengers before they arrive at the airport by searching a wide array of government and private databases that can include... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 21 October 2013, 19:15 ( 7:15 PM) | Comments (2)

Sunday, 13 October 2013

The Amazing Race 23, Episode 3

San Alfonso (Chile) - Santiago (Chile) - Lisbon (Portugal) - Sintra (Portugal) Portugal made the short list of places I liked best among those I visited for the first time on my most recent trip around the world: If you are wondering where you can still afford to travel in... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 13 October 2013, 23:59 (11:59 PM) | Comments (2)

Sunday, 29 September 2013

How the NSA obtains and uses PNR data (airline reservations)

If you are looking for my analysis of the report in today's New York Times that the NSA, like the DHS, obtained airline reservations (PNR data) and used them for social network analysis, it's here on PapersPlease.org (The Identity Project).... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 29 September 2013, 20:45 ( 8:45 PM) | Comments (1)

Friday, 6 September 2013

Why did the NSA hack an airline reservation system (when CBP already has root access)?

The latest revelations about NSA attacks on encrypted electronic communications include this sentence buried in an article in yesterday's New York Times (first noted today by the travel news website Skift): But by 2006, an N.S.A. document notes, the agency had broken into communications for three foreign airlines, one travel... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 6 September 2013, 14:48 ( 2:48 PM) | Comments (0)

Monday, 20 May 2013

"Consumer Privacy and Air Travel: Recommendations to the U.S. Dept. of Transportation"

[ACACP in session, 21 May 2013. Left to right: Lisa Madigan, chair (Attorney General of Illinois), Charlie Leocha (Founder and Director, Consumer Travel Alliance), Deborah Ale Flint (Executive Director, Oakland Airport), David Berg (General Counsel, "Airlines For America")] I'm on my way to Washington to take part in an... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 20 May 2013, 10:48 (10:48 AM) | Comments (0)

Friday, 3 May 2013

DOT Advisory Committee on Consumer Protection to consider privacy of travel data

In the first formal public consideration ever by the U.S. government of the privacy issues posed by airline reservations and other personal information used by the air travel industry, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protection will devote much of its next quarterly all-day meeting in... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 3 May 2013, 10:07 (10:07 AM) | Comments (0)

Wednesday, 17 April 2013

"Mystery Computer Problem Grounds All AA Flights"

I'm quoted at some length in this article today on TechNewsWorld.com: Mystery Computer Problem Grounds All AA Flights By John P. Mello Jr. Finger Pointing Relations between Sabre and American have been deteriorating for years, according to travel consultant Edward Hasbrouck. That's ironic, since American created Sabre but later let... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 17 April 2013, 21:44 ( 9:44 PM) | Comments (0)

Sunday, 31 March 2013

The Amazing Race 22, Episode 6

Makgadikgadi Pans National Park (Botswana) - Maun (Botswana) This week the teams on The Amazing Race 22 confronted the difficulties of driving themselves, in rented SUVs, in and around the town of Maun, Botswana. Maun is a large town, not a city. But as the gateway to the Okavango Delta,... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 31 March 2013, 23:59 (11:59 PM) | Comments (0)

Tuesday, 26 March 2013

"Travel Surveillance, Traveler Intrusion" at the Cato Institute

I'll be speaking at a free, public forum on Travel Surveillance, Traveler Intrusion from noon-1 p.m. EDT next Tuesday, 2 April 2013, at the Cato Institute in Washington DC (with a live and archived webcast): Travel Surveillance, Traveler Intrusion [photo by kind permission of Jeramie D. Scott] Video from the... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 26 March 2013, 17:22 ( 5:22 PM) | Comments (1)

Monday, 4 February 2013

ACLU blog cites my research on DHS travel logs

My insightful friend Jay Stanley of the ACLU had a thought-provoking article last Friday in the ACLU's "Free Future" blog, using as examples some of the records I and other travellers obtained through my lawsuit and other Privacy Act and FOIA requests from our files in the DHS "Automated Targeting... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 4 February 2013, 18:23 ( 6:23 PM) | Comments (0)

Sunday, 2 December 2012

The Amazing Race 21, Episode 9

Ransdorp (Netherlands) - Barcelona (Spain) - Palma de Mallorca (Spain) - Manacor (Spain) - Campanet (Spain) - Muro (Spain) - Palma de Mallorca (Spain) The penultimate episode of The Amazing Race 21 began with the racers having to "make their way" from the outskirts of Amsterdam to the Spanish island... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 2 December 2012, 23:59 (11:59 PM) | Comments (2)

Sunday, 4 November 2012

The Amazing Race 21, Episode 6

Sonargaon (Bangladesh) - Istanbul (Turkey) Getting around censorware and Internet blocking Istanbul was introduced this week on The Amazing Race 21 as the place "where the Bosporus strait separates Europe from Asia". That's true enough, geographically speaking. It's also true, more significantly, in a cultural sense, and whether Istanbul seems... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 4 November 2012, 23:59 (11:59 PM) | Comments (4)

Sunday, 14 October 2012

The Amazing Race 21, Episode 3

Surabaya (Indonesia) - Bangil (Indonesia) Smartphones for international travel: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 2022 update: Part 1 | Part 2 Digital maps for international travel Surabaya is one of those cities that is both large, diverse, and of significant national importance and centrality in a large... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 14 October 2012, 23:59 (11:59 PM) | Comments (2)

Sunday, 7 October 2012

The Amazing Race 21, Episode 2

Shanghai (China) - Surabaya (Indonesia) Smartphones for international travel: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 2022 update: Part 1 | Part 2 Choosing and buying a smartphone for international travel [Left: Nokia C7 (T-Mobile USA "Astound"). Right: Nokia 5230 (T-Mobile USA "Nuron"). Putting your own photo on your... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 7 October 2012, 23:59 (11:59 PM) | Comments (8)

Sunday, 30 September 2012

The Amazing Race 21, Episode 1

Pasadena, CA (USA) - Shanghai (China) Smartphones for international travel: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 2022 update: Part 1 | Part 2 "Will my smartphone work abroad?" [Some of my SIM cards from around the world. Each of these is associated with a different phone number and... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 30 September 2012, 23:59 (11:59 PM) | Comments (4)

Friday, 21 September 2012

"Automated Targeting System" briefing Oct. 3rd in New York

While I'm in New York City next month, I'll be giving a brown-bag lunch presentation on the DHS "Automated Targeting System" and government surveillance and control of travelers on Wednesday, October 3, 2012, 12:30 - 2 p.m., at the Brennan Center for Justice, New York University School of Law, 161... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 21 September 2012, 17:55 ( 5:55 PM) | Comments (0)

Tuesday, 11 September 2012

Sabre CRS is down

The Sabre computerized reservation system is down this morning, taking with it all those airlines hosted in Sabre (including American, Alaska, Frontier, and Southwest) and those travel agents who rely on Sabre as an outsourced connectivity and CRM provider. Most travel agencies and agents rely on a single CRS/GDS to... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 11 September 2012, 09:11 ( 9:11 AM) | Comments (0)

Wednesday, 29 August 2012

United Airlines grounded by CRS outage

For several hours yesterday afternoon (US time), United Airlines was unable to check in or board passengers on most of its scheduled flights because of an outage affecting the computerized reservation system (CRS) that hosts United's database of passenger name records (PNRs). This wasn't the first time this sort of... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 29 August 2012, 10:08 (10:08 AM) | Comments (4)

Thursday, 1 March 2012

Google is now hosting airline reservations (PNRs)

Details on what this means, and why it matters, in my article today for the Identity Project at PapersPlease.org. (More background to Google's entry into the travel technology business here and here.)... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 1 March 2012, 13:55 ( 1:55 PM) | Comments (0)

Tuesday, 31 January 2012

Is the advertised price too good to be true? No. (Part 2 of 2)

Yersterday I analyzed a deceptive travel deal that was much less of a discount from the regular price than it was advertised to be. Today I'll look at the flip side of the coin: What happens when you are offered a price that's much more of a deal than... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 31 January 2012, 21:16 ( 9:16 PM) | Comments (1)

Wednesday, 12 October 2011

Upcoming events in Europe

[At the c-base hackerspace, Berlin, 20 October 2011.] I'll be in Europe for most of the rest of this month representing the Identity Project in a series of public events and private meetings with European Union and European national officials on PNR data (airline reservations), privacy, data protection, and... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 12 October 2011, 18:14 ( 6:14 PM) | Comments (0)

Wednesday, 7 September 2011

NoPNR.org: "Why should I care about PNR?"

I have a guest post today at NoPNR.org, the Web site of a European grassroots campaign against government surveillance of airline reservations: Why should I care about PNR? More for my European readers about PNR data and how it is used by governments: More about what's in a PNR Examples... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 7 September 2011, 07:28 ( 7:28 AM) | Comments (0)

Saturday, 18 June 2011

Lessons for travellers from the United Airlines computer outage

It's not yet clear what caused the 5-hour network connectivity problem that disrupted United Airlines flights Friday, and has left many travellers still stranded or facing flight delays and cancellations. But this isn't the first time something like this has happened (the last time I wrote about a similar incident,... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 18 June 2011, 18:27 ( 6:27 PM) | Comments (0)

Wednesday, 26 January 2011

Airline ticket price transparency

If I weren't busy writing a book, I'd have much more to say about the complex disputes between airlines (especially American Airlines), computerized reservation systems (including Sabre, which ironically was founded by and used to be a division of American Airlines before being spun off as a now-competing company), and... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 26 January 2011, 16:57 ( 4:57 PM) | Comments (2)

Friday, 7 January 2011

Quoted here and there

Security concerns for IDs with microchips: New 'Ready Lanes' incentive for border crossers by Alejandro Martinez-Cabrera, El Paso Inc. (27 December 2010): Privacy advocates and civil rights groups raised their concerns with the Department of State when it first proposed equipping passport books with RFID tags in 2005. In response,... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 7 January 2011, 08:45 ( 8:45 AM) | Comments (1)

Friday, 30 July 2010

Washington Post: "Secure Flight may be making your privacy less secure"

I'm quoted today as spokesperson for the Identity Project (PapersPlease.org) in the Washington Post in a story by Christopher Elliott about how airlines are able to use personal information -- collected under government duress for the TSA's Secure Flight passenger surveillance and control scheme -- for the airlines' own marketing... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 30 July 2010, 16:09 ( 4:09 PM) | Comments (1)

Wednesday, 14 July 2010

Google buys ITA Software (Part 3: What's it mean for travellers?)

Monday in Part 1 I discussed the origins of ITA Software, the air travel pricing and reservation software company bought this month by Google for US$700 million. Yesterday in Part 2 I tried to explain what ITA Software actually does (and doesn't) do. Today in Part 3, below, I'll get... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 14 July 2010, 12:39 (12:39 PM) | Comments (12)

Tuesday, 13 July 2010

Google buys ITA Software (Part 2: What does ITA Software do?)

Yesterday in Part 1 I told some of the history of ITA Software, the air travel pricing and reservation software company bought this month by Google for US$700 million. Today I'll discuss ITA Software's strengths, weaknesses, and strategic approach to the airfare puzzle (Part 2, below). Tomorrow I'll finish up... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 13 July 2010, 15:15 ( 3:15 PM) | Comments (7)

Monday, 12 July 2010

Google buys ITA Software (Part 1: The back story)

At the start of this month Google announced its purchase of ITA Software -- if the antitrust division of the USA Department of Justice, and/or the Department of Transportation, decide the deal won't restrain trade by giving Google any sort of monopoly -- for US$700 million in cash. Even for... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 12 July 2010, 12:31 (12:31 PM) | Comments (4)

Wednesday, 28 April 2010

Podcast on "Passenger Name Records" (PNR)

Swedish libertarian blogger "HAX" (Henrik Alexandersson) has an 25-minute podcast in his English-language blog, The Embedded Citizen and in his Swedish blog of a conversation we had last week over an al fresco lunch on a perfect spring day in Strasbourg (pictured above) about Passenger Name Record data. Also... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 28 April 2010, 20:30 ( 8:30 PM) | Comments (0)

Friday, 16 April 2010

Workshop on PNR data at Re:Publica (Berlin)

I'm speaking about Passenger Name Record (PNR) data as part of a workshop from 15:00-16:00 (GMT +1, PDT +9) today at the Re:Publica blogger, media, and net society conference in Berlin. The keynote presentations are being Webcast, but not the workshops. Some links for more information: Slides with annotation How... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 16 April 2010, 01:56 ( 1:56 AM) | Comments (0)

Tuesday, 13 April 2010

Passenger Name Records (PNR) in practice: a case study

I spoke about Passenger Name Record (PNR) data as a case study in the relationship of EU policies to the realities of industry and US government practice at the European Privacy OS conference today in Oxford (UK). Some links for more information: Slides with annotation How to request your own... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 13 April 2010, 22:44 (10:44 PM)

Thursday, 8 April 2010

Testimony to Members of the European Parliament

[Hearing in progress. MEP Jan Philipp Albrecht in the chair, center.] [My presentation. European Data Protection Supervisor Peter Hustinx at right.] I'm testifying Thursday afternoon in Brussels (Thursday morning in the USA) on the hotly debated proposed agreement between the EU and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on transfers... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 8 April 2010, 00:01 (12:01 AM) | Comments (3)

Wednesday, 3 February 2010

Missed connections

A comment on one of my earlier posts on airline codesharing warrants it's own response. Kevin asked: My understanding is that if you book on codeshared flights A and B and if flight A is delayed or canceled so that you miss flight B, you will not be penalized for... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 3 February 2010, 22:56 (10:56 PM) | Comments (6)

Monday, 1 February 2010

JetBlue's switch to Sabre: What's it mean to you?

From 36 hours from midnight Thursday night through mid-afternoon Saturday, JetBlue Airways' telephone reservations center (actually a virtual "center" -- when you call 1-800-JET-BLUE, the phone is answered by someone working from home anywhere within a couple of hours of Salt Lake City, mostly mothers with children but also some... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 1 February 2010, 21:02 ( 9:02 PM) | Comments (0)

Sunday, 13 December 2009

TSA Screening Management Procedures

There's been a lot of news in the last week about the USA Transportation Security Administration's posting of the TSA "Screening Management Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)" on a public Federal government Web site. The Identity Project has previously obtained portions of this document in response to our requests under the... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 13 December 2009, 16:01 ( 4:01 PM) | Comments (0)

Thursday, 26 November 2009

"Keeping Track of Travelers' Personal Information"

WSAV-TV in Savannah, Georgia, used my forms and instructions to request the U.S. government's records about one of their reporters' travels from the "Automated Targeting Ssystem". Two months later, after getting an (incomplete) response, they've broadcast a detailed Thanksgiving travel-season report on what they found and its significance: Keeping Track... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 26 November 2009, 04:58 ( 4:58 AM) | Comments (0)

Saturday, 14 November 2009

Prelude to PhoCusWright 2009

I leave tomorrow for Orlando, Florida (my idea of hell, although it scarcely matters since all my time will be spent at the conference resort, the cheaper hotel where I'm staying, and in a rental car going back and forth between them on Orlando's miserable failure of a so-called transportation... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 14 November 2009, 11:57 (11:57 AM) | Comments (0)

Friday, 6 November 2009

Consumer groups call for action on travel privacy

The Consumer Travel Alliance, the Consumer Federation of America, and the Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights have joined me in comments filed today with the Federal Trade Commission asking the FTC to "include the category of travel data in your agenda for action to protect the privacy of... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 6 November 2009, 13:58 ( 1:58 PM) | Comments (0)

Friday, 30 October 2009

Consumer privacy, travel records, and the FTC

The USA Federal Trade Commission -- one of the Federal agencies that seems to have really taken a new direction under new management with the Obama Administration -- is organizing "a series of day-long public roundtable discussions to explore the privacy challenges posed by the vast array of 21st century... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 30 October 2009, 14:38 ( 2:38 PM) | Comments (0)

Monday, 7 September 2009

"The Amazing Race 15" starts Sunday, 27 September 2009

The next season of The Amazing Race , the reality TV show about travel around the world, premieres in the USA with a 2-hour episode of The Amazing Race 15 on CBS-TV on Sunday evening, 27 September 2009 (8-10 p.m. ET/PT, 7-9 p.m. CT/MT). As I've been doing since the... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 7 September 2009, 11:48 (11:48 AM) | Comments (6)

Sunday, 6 September 2009

"The Practical Nomad" coming soon to Kindle and iPhone

The Practical Nomad: How to Travel Around the World will be on sale later this month through Amazon.com in electronic form for reading on the Kindle e-book reader device or on the iPhone or iPod Touch with the Kindle reader app. Amazon.com approached my publisher (Avalon Travel) and I last... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 6 September 2009, 09:33 ( 9:33 AM) | Comments (9)

Sunday, 10 May 2009

What does Air France do with reservation data?

Air France and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines present quite different "corporate cultures", despite being owned by the same French parent corporation , the Air France-KLM Group . Unfortunately, my latest experiments have shown that these two airlines have in common a disregard for the privacy and data protection laws applicable... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 10 May 2009, 16:59 ( 4:59 PM) | Comments (5)

Saturday, 2 May 2009

"Secure Flight" data formats added to the AIRIMP

How soon will we have to get government permission to move around the USA? My analysis today in the Identity Project blog: Secure Flight data formats added to the AIRIMP... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 2 May 2009, 18:33 ( 6:33 PM) | Comments (0)

Friday, 3 April 2009

Aviation and the environment

I've been in Geneva this week for a conference on aviation and the environment; more specifically, on what the air transport industry (aircraft and engine manufacturers, aviation fuel suppliers, air traffic control agencies, airport operators, and of course airlines) are doing about the impact of aircraft emissions on global warming... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 3 April 2009, 07:41 ( 7:41 AM) | Comments (23)

Wednesday, 18 March 2009

Air France puts digital fingerprints in RFID boarding passes

I've often said that there's an unfortunate convergence of interests between travel companies' desires for business process automation and collection of marketing data, and governments' desires for surveillance and movement tracking and logging. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Air France's deployment this week, in operational beta testing, of... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 18 March 2009, 20:14 ( 8:14 PM) | Comments (0)

"All Things Considered" on RFID chips in passports

Today's edition of "All Things Considered" includes a puff piece on e-passports with embedded RFID chips, based entirely on government propaganda. They quoted not a single critic of RFID chips in passports or other travel and identity documents, even though members of the public who submitted comments on the proposal... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 18 March 2009, 16:49 ( 4:49 PM) | Comments (1)

Sunday, 15 March 2009

The Amazing Race 14, Episode 5 (Trains in Russia, India, and China)

Krasnoyarsk (Russia) - Novosibirsk (Russia) A certain amount of our time while travelling is spent, inevitably, in "waiting rooms". Quite often there is only one train or plane a day on a given route, and a connection between two such daily schedules may leave you a 1-hour layover, or a... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 15 March 2009, 23:59 (11:59 PM) | Comments (2)

Travel reading, travel writing, and the public library

[The Fells Branch of the Wellesley Free Library, where I got my first library card] I spent the weekend in Sacramento, where I was interviewed by Jeffrey Callison on Capital Public Radio's Insight show (the segment with me is from 20-35 minutes into the audio archive) and gave one of... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 15 March 2009, 19:45 ( 7:45 PM) | Comments (3)

Thursday, 5 March 2009

"Notes from the Electronic Cottage"

Welcome to listeners to today's segment of Jim Campbell's "Notes from the Electronic Cottage" on community radio WERU-FM in Blue Hill and Bangor, Maine. It's archived online and worth a listen. (And it put me back in touch with a long-lost relative who now lives near Blue Hill, heard the... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 5 March 2009, 13:46 ( 1:46 PM) | Comments (0)

Sunday, 15 February 2009

The Amazing Race 14, Episode 1 (Trains in Europe)

Los Alamitos, CA (USA) - Locarno (Switzerland) - Verzasca Dam (Switzerland) - Interlaken (Switzerland) - Stechelberg (Switzerland) This season of The Amazing Race began with a pair of challenges in European rail route planning, involving connecting trains and combinations of flights and trains. I've faced very similar problems on recent... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 15 February 2009, 23:59 (11:59 PM) | Comments (8)

Tuesday, 3 February 2009

Drive-by reader for RFID drivers licenses and passport cards

Hacker and researcher Chris Paget has posted a viedo demonstrating what I and others have been warning people about for years: the ability to read the globally unique serial numbers on RFID chips in passport cards and electronic drivers licenses in the purses and pockets of pedestians on the street,... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 3 February 2009, 08:25 ( 8:25 AM) | Comments (0)

Wednesday, 17 December 2008

TSA to require bar-coded boarding passes

Buried in the notice of the final rules for the Secure Flight airline passenger ID, surveillance, and control scheme is notice that the USA Transportation Security Administrations (TSA) intends to require airlines to add machine-readable codes to all boarding passes for flights in the USA: To ensure the integrity of... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 17 December 2008, 14:59 ( 2:59 PM) | Comments (1)

Wednesday, 22 October 2008

Secure Flight, "Watch-List Service Providers", and more

Today the TSA and DHS released their final rule for the so-called Secure Flight program to require each would-be airline passenger, even on domestic fligths within the USA, to get individualized per-person, per-flight prior permission from the TSA before they would be "allowed" to board a plane. The final Secure... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 22 October 2008, 15:54 ( 3:54 PM) | Comments (1)

Sunday, 12 August 2007

ICAO schedules next workshop on RFID passports and biometrics

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has scheduled its third annual symposium on biometrics and RFID chips in passports for 1-3 October 2007 at ICAO headquarters in Montréal, Québec, Canada. ICAO has also posted the latest report of its technical advisory group (TAG) on machine readable travel documents (MRTD's), including... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 12 August 2007, 14:25 ( 2:25 PM) | Comments (1)

Thursday, 9 August 2007

Revised USA government schemes for traveller surveillance and control

Today the USA Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the latest converging and ever-worse versions of its plans for surveillance and control of both domestic air travellers within the USA ("Secure Flight", formerly CAPPS-II) and international air and sea travellers to, from, or via the USA (the intenational "Advanced Passenger... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 9 August 2007, 16:13 ( 4:13 PM) | Comments (8)

Tuesday, 7 August 2007

"Automated Targeting System" redux

In November 2006, the USA Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revealed the existence of a so-called Automated Targeting System (ATS) of lifetime government dossiers on millions of international travellers to and from the USA, including airline reservations obtained (by unspecified means) from international airlines, as well as a wide range... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 7 August 2007, 12:29 (12:29 PM) | Comments (1)

Friday, 11 May 2007

While I was away

I had a great time with Evan Korth's students at NYU, and at CFP in Montréal. But the hard disk on my home computer failed while I was out of town, and I'm still working on recovering as much as possible of my data. A friendly reminder: How recent are... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 11 May 2007, 17:28 ( 5:28 PM) | Comments (0)

Thursday, 3 May 2007

"Your Reputation Precedes You" (CFP 2007)

I'm on a panel entitled "Your Reputation Precedes You: The Transfer of European Union Passenger Name Records to the U.S. and Canada" today at the conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy . Here are links to some of the topics and previous articles I may mention in my talk: Freedom... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 3 May 2007, 00:17 (12:17 AM) | Comments (0)

Friday, 27 April 2007

Identity Project comments on European Union CRS regulations

I've mentioned previously that the European Commission has been conducting a public consultation on whether to revise or entirely repeal the European Union's Code of Conduct for Computerized Reservation Systems (CRS's). Because there are no similar rules in any other jursidiction, but all the major CRS's do business in the... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 27 April 2007, 17:30 ( 5:30 PM) | Comments (0)

Tuesday, 17 April 2007

On Internet radio Wednesday; in New York next Wednesday

I'll be talking about similar issues of privacy and travel in an Internet radio interview this Wednesday morning (18 April) and in a guest lecture at New York University next Wednesday afternoon (25 April): Wednesday, 18 April 2007: Guest on the inaugural broadcast of "Uncovering the Truth" with Katherine Albrecht... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 17 April 2007, 18:11 ( 6:11 PM) | Comments (1)

Tuesday, 10 April 2007

Privacy advice for travel managers

I'm featured in the cover story on How to protect travelers' personal data on pages 28-32 of the April 2007 issue of T & E [Travel and Entertainment] Magazine , a leading trade journal for corporate travel managers. (If you don't like the funky page viewer on the magazine's Web... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 10 April 2007, 20:52 ( 8:52 PM) | Comments (2)

Friday, 23 March 2007

European Parliament hearing on PNRs

I'm off to Brussels for this hearing on Monday (agenda , additional background documents ) on the transfer of passenger name record (PNR) data from the European union to the USA, and for a meeting of the "Article 29 Working Party" of E.U. national data protection authorities on the same... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 23 March 2007, 19:23 ( 7:23 PM) | Comments (1)

Sunday, 4 March 2007

Europe reconsidering rules for reservation systems

The European Commission (the executive branch of the European Union) has opened a two-month public consultation on possible revision or repeal of the EU Code of Conduct for Computerized Reservation Systems (CRS's). The outcome of this obscure and technical-seeming regulatory proceeding could have important effects worldwide -- not just or... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 4 March 2007, 12:41 (12:41 PM) | Comments (1)

Friday, 15 December 2006

Congress, EU, and businesses question "targetting" of travellers

Questions are beginning to be asked by members of the U.S. Senate , the European Commission , the European Parliament , and business travellers about the illegal "Automated Targeting System" (ATS) that the USA Department of Homeland Security has already used to deny more than half a million people their... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 15 December 2006, 10:57 (10:57 AM) | Comments (0)

Sunday, 3 December 2006

The Amazing Race 10, Episode 11 ("Automated Targeting System")

Ouarzazate (Morocco) - Casablanca (Morocco) - Barcelona (Spain) As The Amazing Race 10 around the world approaches its final leg, it's harmless fun to take part in the polls on the CBS Web site, where viewers score and rate which team of travellers is their favorite, which they think will... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 3 December 2006, 23:59 (11:59 PM) | Comments (1)

Tuesday, 21 March 2006

The Amazing Race 9, Episode 3

Brotas (Brazil) - São Paulo (Brazil) - Moscow (Russia) - Frankfurt (Germany) - Stuttgart (Germany) - Bad Tolz (Germany) - Grünewald (Germany) - Munich (Germany) Transportation and navigation problems, culminating in Desiree and Wanda's elimination after a succession of wrong turns and difficulties reading a map and obtaining and following... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 21 March 2006, 23:59 (11:59 PM) | Comments (1)

Sunday, 26 February 2006

".travel" sponsor on the defensive

The sponsor of the new .travel top-level Internet domain -- the struggling Tralliance Corporation division of the equally struggling TheGlobe.com/Voiceglo.com -- appears to be running scared in response to questions about how much ".travel" will actually be used, and a report this month by one of the leading independent analysts... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 26 February 2006, 18:53 ( 6:53 PM) | Comments (0)

Tuesday, 25 October 2005

The Amazing Race 8 (Family Edition), Episode 5 (RFID passports)

New Orleans, LA (USA) - Panama City (Panama) Just when the families on The Amazing Race 8 finally left the USA in tonight's episode, the USA Department of State today took the latest in its recent series of regulatory actions to make it more difficult for other families like them... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 25 October 2005, 23:59 (11:59 PM) | Comments (7)

Tuesday, 4 October 2005

USA requires passenger details from international airlines

Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) Effective today airlines, cruise ships, and other vessels operating on international routes to or from the USA are required to provide the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) division of the USA Department of Homeland Security (DHS), electronically, in a standard format, with detailed information on... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 4 October 2005, 19:59 ( 7:59 PM) | Comments (6)

Saturday, 20 August 2005

ICAO standards and Chicago Convention amended to require machine-readable passports by 2010

A new "technical Standard 3.10" adopted by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and a parallel Amendment 19 to Annex 9 of the Chicago Convention on Internatonal Civil Aviation (one of the two main multilateral treaties governing international air transportation) took effect 11 July 2005 to require all passports issued... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 20 August 2005, 21:31 ( 9:31 PM) | Comments (0)

Friday, 19 August 2005

Update on RFID passports and traveller tracking

The USA State Department's Passport Office has already issued some RFID passports to airline employees and plans to start issuing RFID passports to USA diplomats by the end of 2005 and to the general public in February 2006, according to August 2005 press reports. The State Department claims to have... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 19 August 2005, 14:29 ( 2:29 PM) | Comments (1)

Tuesday, 26 April 2005

Follow-up to CFP debate on RFID passports

Lots of continuing reports and fallout from the panel and subsequent discussions on RFID chips in passports last week at the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference: Fed and activist:, Computers Freedom and Privacy Conference, Seattle, 2005: One man is balding, liverspotted, tie-wearing, and shouting. The other is wearing a long... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 26 April 2005, 13:18 ( 1:18 PM) | Comments (0)

Thursday, 14 October 2004

Time to get a new USA passport

Contracts were awarded today to Axalto and three other teams of vendors for the addition of secretly and remotely-readable radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips embedded in the photo and information page (inside front cover) of all new USA passports. In accordance with the timeline in the Request For Proposals , the... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 14 October 2004, 10:27 (10:27 AM) | Comments (3)

Tuesday, 6 July 2004

The Amazing Race 5, Episode 1

Santa Monica, CA (USA) - Montevideo (Uruguay) - Punta del Este (Uruguay) - Punta Ballena (Uruguay) Before the teams in The Amazing Race 5 even get off the Santa Monica Pier, Jim is knocked down by another racer at the starting line, tears open his leg on a nail, and... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 6 July 2004, 23:41 (11:41 PM) | Comments (2)

Thursday, 22 April 2004

"Travel Data and Privacy" forum tonight at CFP

I'll be leading a background and status briefing and strategy session on Travel Data and Privacy tonight, Thursday, 22 April 2004, at the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference. My notes indicate some of what I'll be trying to cover in the briefing, which will be followed by a strategy discussion... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 22 April 2004, 09:42 ( 9:42 AM) | Comments (0)

Saturday, 10 April 2004

American Airlines confirms reservations used in CAPPS-II tests

American Airlines has finally confirmed that, as I reported last year on my Web site, more than a million archived American Airlines reservation records were turned over to each of four competing teams of contractors working on the CAPPS-II passenger profiling and monitoring system in the summer of 2002. According... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 10 April 2004, 06:24 ( 6:24 AM) | Comments (0)

Wednesday, 7 April 2004

Google's "Gmail" tempting, but dangerous

Web-based e-mail has become the international traveller's primary mode of communication with friends, family, and business associates back home and around the world. And a common problem is that travellers don't receive important messages because their e-mail boxes have filled up between stops at cybercafés, so no new messages can... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 7 April 2004, 12:42 (12:42 PM) | Comments (5)

Monday, 5 April 2004

Labor Tech 2004 denounces surveillance of travellers and transportation workers

I spent the weekend at the Labor Tech 2004 conference on labor and technology at Stanford University, where I spoke about the surveillance of travel and transportation workers (more on those issues in a separate article) as part of a panel on the surveillance of workers. International labor and technology... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 5 April 2004, 07:38 ( 7:38 AM) | Comments (0)

Friday, 13 February 2004

Why CAPPS-II would cost a billion dollars

Several people have asked for the basis of my cost estimate for CAPPS-II, quoted today in Business Travel News online and elsewhere. My estimate of US$1 billion or more in in infrastructure and implementation costs to airlines, computerized reservations systems (CRS's), travel agencies and agents, other intermediaries, and software and... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 13 February 2004, 12:41 (12:41 PM) | Comments (0)

Thursday, 11 December 2003

DHS calls for proposals for US-VISIT visitor tracking system

As reported here , here , and here , the USA Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has published its request for proposals for the US-VISIT system database and tracking system for foreign visitors. The US-VISIT prime contract will cover the database itself, integration with other government and private information technology,... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 11 December 2003, 15:59 ( 3:59 PM) | Comments (0)

Sunday, 7 December 2003

Focus on competition at PhoCusWright conference

As in years past, the 10th PhoCusWright Executive Conference in Orlando, Florida, 17-18 November 2003, brought together the CEO's of the most influential companies at the intersection of travel, technology, and the Internet, providing those of us who observe those industries with one of our most important annual opportunities for... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 7 December 2003, 09:10 ( 9:10 AM) | Comments (1)

Friday, 14 November 2003

Call for moratorium on RFID tagging of consumer products

In a Position Statement on the Use of RFID on Consumer Products released today, a wide range of privacy and consumer organizations and advocates (including myself) have called for, "a voluntary moratorium on the item-level RFID tagging of consumer items until a formal technology assessment process involving all stakeholders, including... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 14 November 2003, 18:02 ( 6:02 PM) | Comments (2)

Thursday, 13 November 2003

ICAO proposes to require remotely-readable passports by 2006

This week the Technical Advisory Group on Machine Readable Travel Documents (TAG/MRTD) of the International Civil Aviation Organisation , a technical standards organization affiliated with the UN and the ISO , published a formal proposal that all ICAO member countries begin issuing remotely-readable RFID passports by 1 April 2006. The... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 13 November 2003, 19:31 ( 7:31 PM) | Comments (1)

Wednesday, 12 November 2003

Setback for "Simplified Travel" field test

Planned airport iris scans illegal Greece's national data protection authority has blocked a test that was scheduled to begin later this month of fingerprinting and iris scans of passengers on Athens-Milan flights. The ruling is a major setback for the joint IATA/SITA Simplifying Passenger Travel (SPT) project, in which "biometric"... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 12 November 2003, 11:21 (11:21 AM) | Comments (0)

Tuesday, 11 November 2003

"Key escrow" with TSA for airline luggage locks?

In a story apparently slated for general release tomorrow, Joe Sharkey gives advance notice in his column in today's New York Times that the USA Transportation Security Administration will cooperate in a program to sell special luggage locks to which the TSA will have either master keys or a master... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 11 November 2003, 20:44 ( 8:44 PM) | Comments (4)

Friday, 7 November 2003

LAS to use RFID baggage tags

McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas (IATA city and airport code LAS) has signed a 5-year, US$25 million contract to track all baggage checked in by passengers at LAS using 100 million remotely readable, uniquely numbered radio-frequency (RFID) identification tags. Regardless of the merits or demerits of RFID, what got... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 7 November 2003, 07:02 ( 7:02 AM) | Comments (0)

Thursday, 23 October 2003

Personal data stored on hotel card-key mag stripes

As tracked down (in spite of the initial skepticism of your truly about his initial less detailed reports) and posted by Jay Melnick of TravelBank Systems on his own Web site and in the Travel Guide Writers' Email List, here's more on the storage of personal information from reservation records... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 23 October 2003, 09:24 ( 9:24 AM) | Comments (5)

Bad idea of the day

Venture to Offer ID Card for Use at Security Checks (N.Y. Times, free registration and cookie acceptance required) "Today a new company, Verified Identity Card Inc., which will offer customers an electronic card containing data showing that they are not on terrorism watch lists and do not have certain felony... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 23 October 2003, 06:35 ( 6:35 AM) | Comments (1)

Tuesday, 21 October 2003

Overseas? Dial home on the cheap

"Your own mobile phone is probably useless abroad. You have plenty of other options, some outrageously expensive and others almost free...." Read the full story from Bankrate.com or MSN Money. This is a surprisingly thorough survey of a complex topic: pricing options for mobile (cellular) phone use outside your home... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 21 October 2003, 16:26 ( 4:26 PM) | Comments (0)

Will ICANN give ".travel" to IATA?

Less than a week before the start of the annual meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)Board of Directors, the agendas for the public forum and the actual Board meeting have still not been posted on the meeting Web site. That makes it real easy for... (...Read Entire Entry)

Link | Posted by Edward, 21 October 2003, 05:06 ( 5:06 AM) | Comments (0)