If you want to hire a car at Stansted Airport, you now need to give a fingerprint.
The scheme being tested by Essex police and car hire firms, is not voluntary. Every car rental customer must take part.
No fingerprint, no car hire at Stansted airport
These are stored by the hire firms - and will be handed over to the police if the car is stolen or used for another crime.
Detective Sergeant Vic Murphy, from the CID team at Stansted Airport, says it's a response to criminal gangs targeting airport car hire firms - where cars are driven away using false passports, false licences and false credit cards.
Full details at:
tinyurl.com/ydzjxt
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Roger
I read frequently, but only post when I have something useful to say.
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Good. They must hae a problem there. I saw this scheme in action when one used a Credit Card in a rather dodgy town I visited.
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I think this is a good idea too, helps track down criminals and so makes the average man in the street safer.
I bet the police state contigent will soon post saying it takes away our right to hire a car anonomously. That is true, but it will protect the public.
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Torque means nothing without RPM
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I doubt any criminal is going to be daft enough to hire a car at this airport in order to commit a crime. All this will do is make him obtain a car by whatever means elsewhere.
As usual the ordinary public are the ones to suffer.
'If you've got nothing to hide' no doubt someone will cry. If that's the case can I take a look at your bank account?
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I see a hornets nest stirring!
How about leaving a fingerprint when I make a £10k purchase on my gold card? It might be stolen! Why restrict it to cars? why not every credit card transaction?
What about a large cash purchase? you might be money laundering, so why not a fingerprint requirement?
What about your satnav letting police know where your car is at any given moment? NCP letting police know of all the cars parked in its car parks? TFL letting police know of your travel routine when you buy an Oyster card with your credit card.
My only thoughts on this are what happens to the prints when the car comes back? are the prints destroyed? if not, will police be able to obtain them with a Data Protection request?
We appear to be the most surveilled country on earth, but crime hasn't reduced; so where is the effectiveness in all this technology?
I am pretty sanguine about it all and have no particular views. However, I think that in any democracy, it is legitimate that we are able to ask questions about our liberty and our privacy; that where privacy is invaded, we are given 1) the reasons for it, 2) audited results of its effectiveness and 3) Assurance that our private information is destroyed once the reason for it being taken has passed.
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We appear to be the most surveilled country on earth, but crime hasn't reduced; so where is the effectiveness in all this technology?
What do you mean, 'effectiveness'?
The authorities just want to watch people doing bad things. They don't want actually to do anything about it. They're voyeurs.
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this is quite a good moral dilemma isn't it.........one side of you thinks 'well i don't do wrong myself, so what have i or my family got to worry about, let them do it to prevent crime'.....
on the other hand you think...' all very well, but what sceme awaits around the corner to further erode my civil liberties'
there needs to be a decent balance........ and i'm unsure where we are going with that balance, so it leaves me concerned
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Finger prints and DNA being captured and stored by anyone other than the police force in the pursuit of a specific crime is taking things too far. FAR to far. Innocent people shoul dhave no need to even consider this.
There is no, absolutely no need for a national database of everyones genetic identity. In my opinion (and its an opnion) this hire car company should be ostrasised and shunned and driven out of business. there is NO place in a commercial enterprise for the use of genetic identity information.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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There is no, absolutely no need for a national database of everyones genetic identity. In my opinion (and its an opnion) this hire car company should be ostrasised and shunned and driven out of business. there is NO place in a commercial enterprise for the use of genetic identity information. ------------------------------
I guess its a case of 'you want to hire my car - you give me your fingerprints'. No obligations either side. No doubt the credit card companies will want biometric information soon so that it can be stored on cards (or how about iris-scanning, Minority Report style!).
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I imagine that this has come about because the car hire companies are not too thrilled about having many £1000's of cars stolen. Stansted is a major low-cost airline hub and I guess people come in on cheap flights from overseas with false documents, hire a car and then strip it or sell it on and enjoy themselves on the proceeds.
Unfortunately, like it or not, the UK has a major crime problem. We also have very lax border controls and no system of monitoring people entering the country. No ID cards either, so really we have no idea who is in the country, where they are or what they are doing. On a recent trip to Japan I noticed that at Narita airport all non-Japanese passport holders were being photographed and fingerprinted prior to entry - a slightly different approach!.
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A google on the name Shirley McKie turns up some worrying stuff for those with nothing to hide.
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Yes I remember the McKie case well. Unaware that it had come to a conclusion either, obviously fell of the media's radar.
I read the article linked to the original post. Whilst I accept the motive behind the actions beig taken, I have reservations, I would be interested to see the Data Protection statement of the the Company involved, basically I would like to see whether the taking and storage of fingerprint data is included.
I am reluctant to talk about cases I deal with on this site, but I will give an example of a recent case (that was never brought to Court) that we took on on behalf of a clued up client. He went to his local gin palace of physical prowess. To his shock he was asked for a facial photograph to be added to their database - an online check of their Data Protection statement showed that they did not register this intention, his initial approaches were ignored, ours weren't and he pocketed a good "apology" from them.
Hope the Hire Company guys read this...
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