your_dreamguy
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2002
- Posts
- 246
I'm a privacy advocate. I do not have a problem with taking my fingerprints for a background check to get hired by my airline. However, after my fingerprints are run, what happens to them?
To find out, I called the NFCC (National Fingerprint Collection Center). I spoke with a representative. Apparantly, the NFCC collects your fingerprints for all (or most) airlines. From there, the NFCC forwards your fingerprints to the TSA. I do not know what happens to your fingerprints at the TSA. From there, your fingerprints go the FBI. The FBI does a background check. After that, the rep at the NFCC claims that your fingerprints are stored with the FBI for 90 days. However, even though I had no evidence, I had a feeling that the rep at the NFCC was lying to me. I think that the FBI, permantly stores your fingerprints. If that is the case, how is that legal? I cannot think of any law that would make the storing of personal information by a government agency legal? Isn't this a violation of your civil rights? Most pilots, say, you shouldn't have anything to hide. I do not have anything to hide. By the way, the "you should not have anything to hide" argument is routinely used by police to persuade people into giving up their rights in illegal searches carried out by the police. Further, when your fingerprints are stored, your fingerprints are accesible to government agencies of other countries. Also, what happens if there is some abusive people who mis-treat your personal data?
You might argue that I have consented for the storage of personal information by a government agency in other ways...such as getting a passport. However, what is interesting about a pilot's situation is that this is a governmental requirement for employment with a private company (that is not a govermental agency).
What was strange about my conversation with the rep at the NFCC was that he agreed with my viewpoint and added that many pilots had contacted him and expressed the same concerns. Are there enough pilots out there with the balls to get ALPA or some other organization to institute a change?
To find out, I called the NFCC (National Fingerprint Collection Center). I spoke with a representative. Apparantly, the NFCC collects your fingerprints for all (or most) airlines. From there, the NFCC forwards your fingerprints to the TSA. I do not know what happens to your fingerprints at the TSA. From there, your fingerprints go the FBI. The FBI does a background check. After that, the rep at the NFCC claims that your fingerprints are stored with the FBI for 90 days. However, even though I had no evidence, I had a feeling that the rep at the NFCC was lying to me. I think that the FBI, permantly stores your fingerprints. If that is the case, how is that legal? I cannot think of any law that would make the storing of personal information by a government agency legal? Isn't this a violation of your civil rights? Most pilots, say, you shouldn't have anything to hide. I do not have anything to hide. By the way, the "you should not have anything to hide" argument is routinely used by police to persuade people into giving up their rights in illegal searches carried out by the police. Further, when your fingerprints are stored, your fingerprints are accesible to government agencies of other countries. Also, what happens if there is some abusive people who mis-treat your personal data?
You might argue that I have consented for the storage of personal information by a government agency in other ways...such as getting a passport. However, what is interesting about a pilot's situation is that this is a governmental requirement for employment with a private company (that is not a govermental agency).
What was strange about my conversation with the rep at the NFCC was that he agreed with my viewpoint and added that many pilots had contacted him and expressed the same concerns. Are there enough pilots out there with the balls to get ALPA or some other organization to institute a change?