Originally Posted by TierFlyer
I have to give my thumbprint at several client sites to get in the building, and at least two clients have run a criminal background check on me before giving me a temporary badge. But it doesn't make me feel like a criminal - perhaps I am insufficiently hysterical.
Private companies and government agencies are different things, for a start.
Most of the time people are only fingerprinted when they're suspected of committing a crime. Thus the connection between being fingerprinted isn't quote as "hysterical" as you may think. Plenty of ordinary people don't like being fingerprinted to come to the US and have cut back or entirely stopped coming. Making the process even more intrusive and cumbersome will only further decrease the number of visitors. I hardly think that damaging our own economy (which is a stated goal of Al Qaeda), for the illusion of security is worthwhile.
You are right that East Germany probably would have loved the technology we could have. Amazing that with extensive files on a huge percentage of their population and all of their draconian tactics they couldn't even predict the fall of the Berlin Wall, or keep residents of East Berlin locked in.