Yeah, it's old-school people control. This said, these days it could be done electronically, without the hotel storing physical information: at check-in, you put your passport in goverment-issued, (hopefully) tamper-proof machines, the hotel confirms length of stay, police server gets the info and that's it; early checkouts, the hotel must notify via some web portal. It would be relatively easy to implement.
But nobody really cares enough to spend money modernising this sort of system.
Yeah, honestly I'd prefer the remote, simple hotel makes a physical photocopy which at least has a chance of being thrown out after a couple of weeks vs the government of "random country" gets a digital copy which will never, ever, ever be deleted.
Ironically, that would enable tracking much more than the normal case, which is a hotel stores the scans on a hard drive on the closet that nobody every looks at unless they get a subpoena.
> This said, these days it could be done electronically
Are you 'avin a laugh mate?
A photocopy of my passport is going nowhere and is shreadded afterwards. An electronic copy..... God lord.
The GDPR also requires data deletion once you no longer need it; physical as well as electronic. This is common sense, and why some organisations don't do this is simply mind boglling.
Not in my, admittedly limited, experience. I've stayed in hotels in at least a dozen countries and under half of them wanted my passport. In the UK it's usually enough to just say my name to the receptionist, they confirm how long I'm staying, ask me to sign a form and tell them my car registration number and then they hand me the key. Quite often there isn't even a form to sign, just a terminal to enter my car registration number to avoid parking fees.
I was asked for my passport in a Premier Inn this summer because they thought I was a foreigner but when I pointed out that I was a UK citizen they dropped the requirement.
In Europe it was mostly Italy and Poland that wanted to see my passport.
The requirement is that they provide some of the information contained in the visitor's id to a police web application. At least, that's how it works here in Spain. But it doesn't mean the hotel needs to take a picture of your id, nor scan it. They just need to transcribe the required information. Yet some would not let you check-in if you refuse to let them scan your id or take pictures of it, that you never know how and for how long will be kept. Of course, you usually don't want to argue after you arrive at some place to make the check-in when the alternative is to sleep on the street.
I politely refused the data collection a couple times just to confirm my understanding, expecting to trigger some discussion in case I was wrong. But hotel staff was perfectly aware of the applicable local rules and just skipped ahead to explaining the most convenient route to my room. Apparently the general assumption among visitors is that they would not ask if they were not required to collect it.
I just tell them they can look at it but not copy it and that's satisfied them, for now. Sometimes had to get a manager in, but never had them deny me fully. I'm sure sooner or later I'll run into a stubborn one and have to scramble for a day-of replacement hotel, and that just adds to my list of reasons to avoid travel.
Travel to Spain and they will not give you a room key until they can take your passport and make a scan of it, often times on an old flatbed print/scanner combo, that they print out a copy on paper to staple to their copy of the invoice and put god knows where. It's been like that for about 6-8 years. No more showing up and paying cash for a hotel room.
You can try to say no, but I don't think you can anymore. I go through this a dozen times a year on my travels there.
If democracy really worked, and your desire to spy on politicians is shared by enough people, supposedly, you should be able to create your own party which has that explicit goal. Maybe find a few other goals, or you will end up like the pirates :-)
I am writing this because I don't think democracy works as advertised.
It is a basic police requirements on most countries. Hotels must collect visitor id's and keep it for several weeks.
Yeah, it's old-school people control. This said, these days it could be done electronically, without the hotel storing physical information: at check-in, you put your passport in goverment-issued, (hopefully) tamper-proof machines, the hotel confirms length of stay, police server gets the info and that's it; early checkouts, the hotel must notify via some web portal. It would be relatively easy to implement.
But nobody really cares enough to spend money modernising this sort of system.
I'm sure they're done electronically in some places: Your passport details are appended to the shared Google Spreadsheet...
I'm only half joking: I used to work in payments, hotels didn't care about PCI. Full card numbers stored everywhere.
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Yeah, honestly I'd prefer the remote, simple hotel makes a physical photocopy which at least has a chance of being thrown out after a couple of weeks vs the government of "random country" gets a digital copy which will never, ever, ever be deleted.
Ironically, that would enable tracking much more than the normal case, which is a hotel stores the scans on a hard drive on the closet that nobody every looks at unless they get a subpoena.
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All these giant data leaks are coming from the government's "tamper proof" systems!
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> This said, these days it could be done electronically
Are you 'avin a laugh mate?
A photocopy of my passport is going nowhere and is shreadded afterwards. An electronic copy..... God lord.
The GDPR also requires data deletion once you no longer need it; physical as well as electronic. This is common sense, and why some organisations don't do this is simply mind boglling.
5 replies →
Not in my, admittedly limited, experience. I've stayed in hotels in at least a dozen countries and under half of them wanted my passport. In the UK it's usually enough to just say my name to the receptionist, they confirm how long I'm staying, ask me to sign a form and tell them my car registration number and then they hand me the key. Quite often there isn't even a form to sign, just a terminal to enter my car registration number to avoid parking fees.
I was asked for my passport in a Premier Inn this summer because they thought I was a foreigner but when I pointed out that I was a UK citizen they dropped the requirement.
In Europe it was mostly Italy and Poland that wanted to see my passport.
The requirement is that they provide some of the information contained in the visitor's id to a police web application. At least, that's how it works here in Spain. But it doesn't mean the hotel needs to take a picture of your id, nor scan it. They just need to transcribe the required information. Yet some would not let you check-in if you refuse to let them scan your id or take pictures of it, that you never know how and for how long will be kept. Of course, you usually don't want to argue after you arrive at some place to make the check-in when the alternative is to sleep on the street.
I politely refused the data collection a couple times just to confirm my understanding, expecting to trigger some discussion in case I was wrong. But hotel staff was perfectly aware of the applicable local rules and just skipped ahead to explaining the most convenient route to my room. Apparently the general assumption among visitors is that they would not ask if they were not required to collect it.
I just tell them they can look at it but not copy it and that's satisfied them, for now. Sometimes had to get a manager in, but never had them deny me fully. I'm sure sooner or later I'll run into a stubborn one and have to scramble for a day-of replacement hotel, and that just adds to my list of reasons to avoid travel.
Travel to Spain and they will not give you a room key until they can take your passport and make a scan of it, often times on an old flatbed print/scanner combo, that they print out a copy on paper to staple to their copy of the invoice and put god knows where. It's been like that for about 6-8 years. No more showing up and paying cash for a hotel room.
You can try to say no, but I don't think you can anymore. I go through this a dozen times a year on my travels there.
This is Spain.
And why are politicians immune to all of this shit??
Why can’t WE spy on them 24/7?
If democracy really worked, and your desire to spy on politicians is shared by enough people, supposedly, you should be able to create your own party which has that explicit goal. Maybe find a few other goals, or you will end up like the pirates :-)
I am writing this because I don't think democracy works as advertised.
Because you are a slave, Neo.