My issue isn't that the information is being collected, I am more concerned about the data security and what happens with my information
after it has been collected. As long as it is secure and not being used to invade my privacy I'm happy. I seem to recall an incident in the UK not too long ago where tax information was sent and "lost" by post. Who knows what sort of problems this kind of information leak could cause if it were to fall into unscrupulous hands? Please bear in mind that I, like most of the posters here, am a pilot, and I'm sure that the CAA have enough paperwork and information from me to fill a small library. As for the phrase "if you've nothing to hide, you've got nothing to worry about", I appreciate the logic behind this statement, but where do you draw the line. There needs to be a boundary between information required and personal information. We all have a right to (an ever dwindling amount of) privacy. What comes next? DNA samples?
Admittedly there have been some isolated incidents in recent times (Israeli spies caught faking passports to name one), but the fact that these attempts were detected. Unless there is some evience out there that we are
not catching these people, and at this time I have seen none, I will still believe that the current level of security is adequate. Can someone show me that the system is broken and needs fixing?
Furthermore, as I mentioned in my first post, there are people who will no longer visit this country due to these security measures. I realise that these people make up a minority, however, bearing in mind that tourism is New Zealand's largest export earner (even bigger than agriculture - and that is saying a lot), is this not something we should be striving to protect? A quick internet search says that international tourism contributed $7.4 billion (18.5%) of New Zealand's total exports in 2004 (
Source). If this were to reduce even by 5%, it would represent a loss of $370 million from our (comparatively) tiny economy.
Shouldn't we be throwing out the welcome mat to our international guests, and not fingerprinting them like criminals?