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Portugal - tourists and locals to be spied on in new government ‘survey’

cctvA protocol signed today between the Government, the National Statistics Institute and Portugal’s Tourist Board (the state, the state and the state) will lead to a budget allocation for statistical studies into tourist movements across the country’s borders.

The International Tourism Survey is based on work done in 2010 and raises questions about privacy, database security and the misuse of data by police and government departments such as the Tax Authority which, as has been proved, are not to be trusted with potentially sensitive information.

"We want to estimate the number of residents and non-residents crossing the borders and find out what they are spending" according to Alda de Caetano Carvalho, the president of the National Institute of Statistics who will coordinate the project running from this June until late 2016.

At today’s signing ceremony, Carvalho explained that the information will be collected by covert means at observation posts at land border crossing point, airports, ports, and road, ‘among others.’

"We want to know how many residents and non-residents cross the borders and how much they spend,” said Carvalho, stressing the importance of statistics for decision-making by entrepreneurs and policy makers but not stressing the fact that once data exists, governments are loathed to destroy it, usually on the grounds of ‘national security.’
 
Carvalho said much of the data will be collected automatically from mobile phone records and by photographing the registration plates of vehicles and photographing vehicle passengers as they cross the Portuguese border.

Before this happens there needs to be a change in data protection legislation, admitted Carvalho, adding that he is hopeful this change could happen across the European Union.

At the ceremony, the Secretary of State for Tourism, Adolfo Mesquita Nunes, spoke of the "confidence" the Government has in the statistics produced from the National Institute, while Secretary of State for Administrative Mobilisation, Joaquim Cardoso da Costa welcomed the return of the obligation for companies such as mobile phone operators to hand over statistical information.

In one protocol the country is planning to sweep back the curtain of time to pre-1974 when this sort of data was collected by the state to the detriment of its citizens.  

Electronic surveillance at borders is nothing new but to suggest that this type of information is being collected only ‘for statistical purposes’ is disingenuous, whatever the protestations of those involved in signing this devious protocol.

In the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris on the offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine, European leaders discussed whether to reintroduce identity checks within the EU's free travel zone.

Spain, France and Germany in particular were pushing for curbs on passport-free travel and the confusion and delay over the identification of the victims of the Germanwings Flight 9525 air crash will add pressure to alter the Shengen rules at Europe's borders as currently no record of passports and ID cards is required.

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Comments  

-8 #7 Joao Martins 2015-03-28 09:32
Quoting Mutley:
There is a fine line between banana republic and police state.


I think i will go to the ''Financas'' and buy a
banana from the monkeys there, i really do
live in the jungle, don't i.
-6 #6 Tyler 2015-03-26 16:13
"... Privacy protects us from abuses by those in power, even if we’re doing nothing wrong at the time of surveillance. ... Privacy is a basic human need. ... Too many wrongly characterize the debate as “security versus privacy.” The real choice is liberty versus control. ... Widespread police surveillance is the very definition of a police state. And that’s why we should champion privacy even when we have nothing to hide."
Source and read more @ "Privacy for patriots please" @ http://www.imaginarylife.net/2009/12/10/privacy-for-patriots-please/
-7 #5 Tyler 2015-03-26 16:08
"I firmly believe that fascism is still what dominates the country camouflaged by the definition: ‘democracy’." @ http://fullforcespeaker.blogspot.pt/2010/04/false-democracy.html

Actually, ‘country’ = debt slave colony (in my view)

Lastly, ‘... for decision-making by entrepreneurs and policy makers ...‘ :lol: we are not naive to buy it.
-8 #4 Peter Booker 2015-03-26 10:21
So we shall roll back the Schengen agreement. Is this a sign that the EU is not quite the monolith that it pretends to be? With so many potential terrorists and immigrants swirling about the continent, it makes sense for the security forces to keep a better record of their movements.

But the idea of checking on movements to have an idea of how people spend their money? Is this bloke on something? If they want this sort of information, then taking a photo of a car passenger or number plate is scarcely likely to reveal it.

It is not the fact that they lie, but that their lies are so pathetic which is so insulting.
-6 #3 Darkie 2015-03-26 07:05
What have i been telling you all!

Now you begin to see portugal for what it really is!

A commie nazi - Marxist orwellian police state.

The gnr are paramilitary army thugs, a leftover out of control ragtag remnant from the nazi salazar regime of 70s.
George Orwell must be turning in his grave.
Just Last year in portugal, there were over 1000 complaints made against the gnr for assaulting citizens.
If you point a camera or video at any gnr, the will arrest you,nand beat you up in one if there interegration centers.
-8 #2 Karel 2015-03-25 19:02
Ha, the politicians found a new way to intimidate the citizens, to destroy the tourism industry and to largely "participate actively " in the investment of many millions for CCTV and other useless aparatus.... At what use ? None of course but that's not important, isn't it ?
-2 #1 Mutley 2015-03-25 18:49
There is a fine line between banana republic and police state.

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