The US-VISIT program, which has been in operation for all visitors who need a visa to enter the US since January, is designed to identify people who are believed to potentially pose a threat to the security of the US, are known or believed to have violated the terms of their admission to the US, or who are wanted in connection with a criminal act in the US or elsewhere.
Since 30th September the system has been extended to all visitors from countries, such as the UK, who until now have travelled to the US under the Visa Waiver Program, i.e. they did not need a visa.
This means that British visitors to the US have, since last Thursday, had to go through additional entry procedures. These include fingerprinting, specifically the electronic scanning of their right and left index fingers, and having their picture taken. This, claims the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), adds only an average of 15 seconds to the time taken for border control processing.
Personal details are also taken, including name, address and passport number, and the information, together with the biometric identifiers, and retained by the DHS.
Civil liberties group Privacy International has attacked the system, describing the measures as forming part of an unprecedented traveller surveillance and profiling system that within 15 years may encompass data on one billion people.
According to a report published by the group last week, the system is "fundamentally flawed and has the potential to be a corrosive and dangerous practice that will spread internationally."
In particular, Privacy International questions the reliability of the technology used, especially in relation to the huge number of people that will eventually pass through the system. Nor is the system proportionate, says Privacy International, "creating mass surveillance in order to identify a relatively small number of suspects."
US-VISIT also turns legal presumptions on their head, by assuming that everyone is a suspect until eliminated, rather than investigating only those for whom there is reason to be suspicious, says the group.
Finally, according to Privacy International, the system disregards privacy entirely. "It accumulates personal information indiscriminately, collecting and sharing this information for unforeseen purposes, and retaining it over our lifetimes."
Speaking to the IDG News Service, Privacy International's Director, Simon Davies, expressed his belief that flaws in the system would eventually overwhelm it. "I don't believe that an imperfect system is better than nothing," he said. "I think this is going to endanger security. They made a huge error of judgement to appease public opinion in the US"