British Expats And Tourists Encouraged To Register With New Embassy Tracking System

[sunnymarky]

" If you have an inernet connection you are given an IP address which can ultimately trace back to you."

Using IP address to trace someone? Believe me thats out of date

Edited December 1, 2009 by sunnymarky

[mahtin]

And which one was the worst surveillance society, England or Europe this times or Adolfs Germany?

Schaeuble's Germany.

[lukey1979]

Paranoia isn't rampant here, Ignorance is.

Open your eyes and ears to whats happening to our world.

Your goverment needs to control you, Wake up!

Edited December 1, 2009 by lukey1979

[Frezie]

Was this an idle rumour from the UK or was there some truth in it?

British people who receive Government Pensions will have their payments stopped if they permanently reside out of the country?

If say a person lived in Thailand for 6 months of the year and had an Old Age Pension as part of their income is it beyond the bounds of imagination that they may pro-rata it some how?

They are grasping at straws in the UK now if they can make cutbacks and claw money back they will.

No source I'm afraid - I don't get a pension either

Don't know where you got the info from but you are quite wrong. The UK state pension is paid to you any where in the world into an account of your own choice - mine is still paid into my UK bank account. The only drawback is that if you live outside the EU you don't get the annual cost of living increase. Just fell foul of that one as I notified the inland revenue of my whereabouts to make sure I was registered as a non taxpayer in the UK and they both come under the same ministery so now the pension people are going to claw back any of the cost of living increases. The pension still goes a hel_l of a lot further here than it does in the UK even though it is a little less in value.

[moskito]

And which one was the worst surveillance society, England or Europe this times or Adolfs Germany?

Schaeuble's Germany.

right...or Rothshields/Rockefellers sorry Bush/Blairs England USA :D

[Callanbkk]

lol click on this link... on a printed banner...

Haha thats hilarious!!

[Splatter]

If you dont have anything to hide ,whats the problem .

Please reassure me that you don't sunbathe naked.

[Whale]

"This information can be used by FCO to alert citizens to relevant travel concerns as well as contact citizens in the event of an emergency"

If we followed the FCO travel advisories I would never have left our street!

[Navalator]

LOL the data will be used in line with the Data Protection Act . That really makes me laugh. British government agencies are renowned for breaching the act by their negligence.

...............or for law enforcement purposes! The U.S. does the same thing and passes the information directly on to the F.B.I.!

[dudemeister]

I knew I'd seen that contraption somewhere before.

[tok]

Anyone who thinks their government acts in their own interests should read "Anatomy of the State' linked here:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard62.html

It really makes me question our society and its sheep like tolerance when people effectively say "I don't object to continued increasing erosion of my civil liberties as I have nothing to hide"

That view has sure helped the UK become the socialist police state it is now:

20% of the WORLDS cctv cameras

ID cards

DNA databases

Stop and search

Imprisonment on suspicion of planning to orchestrate a crime, without having actually broken the law

monitoring of all calls, emails, websites

etc etc.

Just like the 'carbon dioxide based' global warming illusion is an excuse to increase taxation and control, so has the fabricated 'terrorism threat' led to huge civil liberty erosions.

At least in Thailand corruption is more transparent and less sophisticated, and ultimately far less invasive.

[sangfroid]

The two biggest lies in the English language.

1) The cheque is in the mail.

and

2) I'm from the government and I'm here to help you

[monkfish]

You need to re register every 3 months.

I registered 1 year ago and received nothing so far, even during the protests.

Its one of the reasons for the MASSIVE price tag on the UK passports abroad.

[ikwiljou]

Seems nothing new to me, the Netherlands Embassy uses a simular system. No problem to me, I'm not hiding.

[moskito]

..........so has the fabricated 'terrorism threat' led to huge civil liberty erosions.

hmmmm what do you mean with FABRICATED TERRORIST THREAT? ....do you think thats all fake to collect more and more data? check on citizens etc? :D

If someone still believe that everything was not just a fake to give us all more security check this link (FACTS) out

IT WASNT THE MUSLIMS

proofed by hundreds of links.....BUT who cares? its already History

Edited December 1, 2009 by moskito

[seaeagle]

I remember getting a call from both Embassy and Scotland Yard - just after the tsunami.

Nearly shat myself!! Turned out that someone in UK was worreid about me, had passed my details to the 'national helpline', and SY called me to see if I was okay. Have to say that I was appreciative of this.

I feel it's important for expats to do some registration for one particular reason:

If you fail to "check-in" to family and friends back home via a weekely email / phone call etc, they can escalate this, and, in the end a call can be made to your contact number, I presume.

Then, much quicker than if it were left to 'locals' to go through your contact wishes and things, they'll find out what has happened to you.

For tourists, I'm not sure if it's of much value, especially if they're having the standard fortnight in Phuket. Local and hotel records can easily give an id. If on a 6-month gap-year tour, then a great idea.

I'll be registering, but with limited information.

I think this unpredictable thing in Thailand might just be predictable. If the fan then gets too close to the manure, I'd like to get some contact about the best options for me to take.

[Stumbo]

It all starts out innocently enough :

"We are collecting this data for consular purposes, i.e. finding people who might be caught up in an incident overseas, or getting warnings or other important information to them."

I can understand that and yes it seems like a good idea in the event of a crisis in a specific location that nationals can be contacted and information provided.

However....

"The name, address and contact details of those registered for more than 90 days will be passed on to carefully selected regional contacts in some countries where we have established networks of such people to help British nationals."

Carefully selected????

In addition, during crises we may need to share some information with the UK police"

I do not understand why this should be so? What assistance can the police provide to someone out of the country?

Then comes this little nugget :

"The Data Protection Act recognises that there may be circumstances when compliance with one or more of the Act's data protection principles may prejudice other interests, e.g. national security; crime and taxation; and disclosures required by law or made in connection with legal proceedings. Under such circumstances, the FCO may be obliged or consider it necessary to share personal data with law enforcement/police, other government departments, agency or court concerned."

For reference the eight principles of the Data Protection Act are as follows :

• Fairly and lawfully processed
  
• Processed for limited purposes
  
• Adequate, relevant and not excessive
  
• Accurate and up to date
  
• Not kept for longer than is necessary
  
• Processed in line with your rights
  
• Secure
  
• Not transferred to other countries without adequate protection
  

So which ones are going to be breached, as they state that "any such release would comply with the remaining data protection principles."

Think I'll pass on registration thanks all the same.

Agree, just more Orwellian Big Brother trying to get a fix on you, there is no possible way this is for the benefit of the citizenry.

[BusyBee123]

'The issue is entirely to do with privacy, and the UK government's scant regard for it'

expats are the worst offenders for failure to keep other peoples pivacy just that, way way ahead of any government buffoons

[bdenner]

Believe you me and I'm Australian who tried to sort an expat British Citizens affairs after he died in a traffic accident last week :- The Effin British Embassy only works 35 hours a week --- after that they don't give a f#ck. Unlike the Aussie Embassy who bent over backward to help me in a similar situation last year.

Gorden Brown and the UK --- YOUR DOWN THE SHLT TUBE --- Why didn't you whackers listen to Enock (excuse the spelling) Powel when you had the opportunity.

[bifftastic]

On the FCO website and the consulate/embassy sites in Thailand if you want any consular services you have to register with 'LOCATE' first.

Given that our government is more like an unweildy string of private companies all sub-contracting out to one another, skimming off the tax-payers hard-earned rather than a cohesive bureaucracy, why would I feel comfortable giving them my address? When they say it's so they can contact you in an emergency, well, so can anyone else I give my contact details to, why would I want the government losing my information, handing it over to 'carefully selected agencies' or sticking it on a CD and then giving it to some random bike courier so he can 'lose' it.

[bifftastic]

Believe you me and I'm Australian who tried to sort an expat British Citizens affairs after he died in a traffic accident last week :- The Effin British Embassy only works 35 hours a week --- after that they don't give a f#ck. Unlike the Aussie Embassy who bent over backward to help me in a similar situation last year.

Gorden Brown and the UK --- YOUR DOWN THE SHLT TUBE --- Why didn't you whackers listen to Enock (excuse the spelling) Powel when you had the opportunity.

I can sympathise with the issues you had with the Embassy and it's lack of interest, the government in the UK has never cared about it's people really.

But the reference to Enoch Powell confuses me slightly, it's usually mentioned when referring to immigration and racial issues. Was that what you were inferring? Our government would be less intrusive and more helpful and efficient if we had restricted our immigration in the 1970's?

Can't see it myself to be honest.

[paulchiangmai]

Believe you me and I'm Australian who tried to sort an expat British Citizens affairs after he died in a traffic accident last week :- The Effin British Embassy only works 35 hours a week --- after that they don't give a f#ck. Unlike the Aussie Embassy who bent over backward to help me in a similar situation last year.

Gorden Brown and the UK --- YOUR DOWN THE SHLT TUBE --- Why didn't you whackers listen to Enock (excuse the spelling) Powel when you had the opportunity.

We all know how superior anything Australian is and how inferior any thing British is without you reminding us.

[bdenner]

But the reference to Enoch Powell confuses me slightly, it's usually mentioned when referring to immigration and racial issues.

Exactly and sums up the situation as I see it! The overflow from the UK's misguided Immigration Policy has spread through ALL the facets of there Foreign Office policies to situation where we mere mortals cannot get contact with the people we should do under normal circumstances. He predicted that!

[bifftastic]

Anyone who thinks their government acts in their own interests should read "Anatomy of the State' linked here:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard62.html

It really makes me question our society and its sheep like tolerance when people effectively say "I don't object to continued increasing erosion of my civil liberties as I have nothing to hide"

That view has sure helped the UK become the socialist police state it is now:

20% of the WORLDS cctv cameras

ID cards

DNA databases

Stop and search

Imprisonment on suspicion of planning to orchestrate a crime, without having actually broken the law

monitoring of all calls, emails, websites

etc etc.

Just like the 'carbon dioxide based' global warming illusion is an excuse to increase taxation and control, so has the fabricated 'terrorism threat' led to huge civil liberty erosions.

At least in Thailand corruption is more transparent and less sophisticated, and ultimately far less invasive.

the 'SUS' laws were abolished in the 1980's

stop and search...how else would you propose to tackle knife/gun crime on London's streets? Quoting stop and search and the sus laws could have been done in 1981 but not now.

DNA database has convicted many rapists/murderers.

Whilst I agree that the 'LOCATE' system is a way of our government monitoring us and I'm not very comfortable with that, it's more to their incompetence rather than believing they all have lizards skin underneath.

I guess information like this always encourages people who believe there's a sinister plot to implant all our dental fillings with radioactive chips or something, whereas the reality is often the want to sell our information to 'carefully selected agencies' which is a bit more scary IMO

[NALAK]

Data from the old database will not be automatically migrated.

Why not?

Because the new system requires a DNA sample and fingerprints...

not sure if you ae joking or not but i am on new system no DNA or fingerprints required. been on it few years

[lounger]

I assume that most British citizens move to Thailand because they do not want to get tracked by their government.

Aye, then after you register the taxman comes knocking!

I'll do them a deal...I won't bother them if they won't bother me.....

Help the UK government balance its books. Haha. Now they are scratching around trying to save index linked pension arrangements..... and save NHS medical fees etc..... Sign up and you'll find a government department is sending you letters.

on another incidence did you see a woman claiming benefits was traced through twitter. THEY are using every trick in the book.......

[OnTheRun]

I think I'll pass on this one

[lounger]

If you fail to "check-in" to family and friends back home via a weekely email / phone call etc, ..............................

You what? weekly emails .........

Are you sure you are allowed out alone? have you got your insurance and repatriation of remains registered?

Gimme a break...

[thaifutee]

As someone mentioned, this is not new; been around at least a year. I registered when it first appeared, was notified by email from embassy, only to find they have a time limit of one year for 'your stay' in the country; bloody useless for those who are living here.

[bifftastic]

But the reference to Enoch Powell confuses me slightly, it's usually mentioned when referring to immigration and racial issues.

Exactly and sums up the situation as I see it! The overflow from the UK's misguided Immigration Policy has spread through ALL the facets of there Foreign Office policies to situation where we mere mortals cannot get contact with the people we should do under normal circumstances. He predicted that!

So...Enoch Powell predicted we wouldn't be able to get in contact with people we 'should' be able to contact? What are these 'normal circumstances' to which you refer?

And how, exactly, has the UK's immigration policy, or lack of, contributed to the privatisation of government departments and their desire to keep track of expats? Perhaps it was by allowing too many Australians into the UK? Or is it the 'usual suspects' Caribbeans, Indians, Pakistanis, Bengalis, Poles?

So, to summarise, you think that everything that is wrong with the UK is because of the immigration in the 1970's?

I do hear this 'theory' in the pub sometimes, usually from someone with a court order banning them from football matches.