Transparency for the People

If the government wants to give our personal information to the United States, citizens should at least have the right to know what information is included.

Anyone traveling to the United States in the future should be aware of one thing: In a frenzy of legalistic megalomania, some barely pubescent immigration officials have already been given absolute power (meaning there is no recourse to their decisions) to decide who should be granted entry into their Promised Land. Nothing prevents some future Cerberus from denying someone entry if his or her sexual orientation or membership in the Austrian Federation of Trade Unions is found to be objectionable. All thanks to data the Austrian government is willing to provide the United States without question or control.

And that’s just the first monstrosity. The second is whether the data being provided is even correct to begin with, something no one can say with certainty. The way our government operates, it’s not improbable that some agencies get the names wrong or some bit of false data makes its way into the record. One need only think about all the errors found in the state police files.

If Austria is expected to provide the United States with totally transparent tourists, the least Austrian citizens should know is what information their government has collected about them.