DHS Collects Hotel Records
Jul 29th, 2009 by sherri
Bobby Dominguez wrote in to report on how the DHS is automatically collecting full travel itineraries, including hotel reservations, from electronic booking systems. He writes:
“I recently requested my “file” from the Dept of Homeland Security – Customs. It was interesting to see that they not only knew every flight I took, but also all of the hotels I stayed at too. This surprised me because I didn’t understand how they knew where I was staying.
“I researched this and realized that when I had stayed at hotels that were not booked in advance, they did not have the information on my record. It seems that when you book through Sabre or other services that use Sabre, your entire itinerary become part of the DHS record also. I think this is what they compare your passport stamps to when you come back into the country and the Customs guy is sitting there staring at the computer screen and your passport.”
Sabre is used to book reservations for railways, car rentals, cruises, lodging and airlines around the world.
| Sherri Davidoff |
| PGP-signed text: 2009-07-29 (current) |
There’s more background about the Passenger name recrods (PNR’s) that contain both airline and other reservations, and sabre and the other Computerized reservation Systems (CRS’s) that host them, in my article, “What’s in a PNR?” at:
http://hasbrouck.org/articles/PNR.html
Time permitting, I’d be happy to help recipients of their files interpret them. An initial report by the Identity Project on some of what we found in the first reponses to our requests at:
http://hasbrouck.org/IDP/IDP-ATS-investigation.pdf
We’re contiuing to update the request forms (at the link in your original post) based on the responses to their requests that people are sharing with us.
You can contact me at “edward@hasbrouck.org” or by phone at +1-415-824-0214, or through the Identity Project:
http://www.papersplease.org
So can you post a copy of your record (with any sensitive details blacked or whited out)? I find it helps to see actual government records on actual innocent citizens. Not just talking about it, but actually seeing what they collect, is powerful medicine for a complacent public.
Sabre also happily sells its info to the private sector: http://www.travelclick.net/market-intelligence-reports/index.cfm
[...] DHS Collects Hotel Records – I feel so much safer! Obviously the next time I travel, I don’t have to forward my itinerary to anyone, I can just tell them to call the DHS if I go missing. [...]