Dan Gillmor reports on the new "security" measures that prevail at the Ramada New Yorker hotel — an historic old pile that is owned by the Moonies and was Nicola Tesla's home in his twilight years — that hosted this year's Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference.
The New Yorker (along with many other NYC hotels) has instituted a new policy that requires all guests to allow their credits cards and drivers' licenses to be photocopied and placed on file, seemingly indefinitely. As Dan points out, this is a recipe for identity theft, and in no meaningful way can be said to increase security.
I stay at a lot of hotels, and I've started asking, at reservation-time, what the ID requirements are for check-in, and asking the manager to explain the reasoning for them: what is the threat posed by failure to photocopy photo ID that is addressed by taking a copy? I don't know that it does any good, but I think it's important to ask people who want to take away some of your privacy to explain their reasoning — what's the threat and how does this fix it?
Even more important is to know how the hotel proposes to keep your personal information safe and secure — because there is a real, demonstrable threat to privacy that arises when copies of your identification are left with strangers.
