Timothy C. May wrote:
Having a "Privacy Ombudsman" is a bone thrown to the proles. I suspect a police state like Singapore has such a person.
And related to the "photo I.D." discussion, most of these nations demand that passports be left at hotel desks when checking in. (At least they did when I spent 6 weeks travelling through Europe in 1983.) Perhaps the theory is that this stops people from running out on their bills, though credit cards do the same thing (*). However, the police reportedly inspect these passports and enter them into data bases to track movements.
Many still do. Even ski hire shops in France require a passport, credit card or drivers licence to be _left_ with the shop (even hire car companies don't do this! - I suppose they've figured out you need your driving licence ...) I was recently at a hotel in the Netherlands, and they required me to fill out a form asking for date and place of birth, passport number etc. etc. I asked "What do you want this for?" and they replied "Oh, don't worry, it's not for us, it's for the government"!!! I look around me at the dozen or so people happily giving away these details, including my girlfriend who later has to be given a lesson on misinformation ... (am I the only one who fills out every form as Alexei Sayle with bad handwriting?) Alexei -- pub 1024/C001D00D 1996/01/22 Gary Howland <gary@systemics.com> Key fingerprint = 0C FB 60 61 4D 3B 24 7D 1C 89 1D BE 1F EE 09 06 ^S ^A^Aoft FAT filesytem is extremely robust, ^Mrarely suffering from^T^T