Customs wants to store images of all the vehicles that cross the border

CustomsSVINESUND.Customs.Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB scanpix

Customs will photograph and register all vehicles that cross the border.The Finance Ministry proposes that the information is to be stored for six months.

– Criminals are becoming much more professional and cynical. They often have tactics in place to counter the efforts of undercover agents or plainclothes policemen when they cross the border, and because of this we  also have to give customs officers a good tool to make more targeted controls,  Jorgen Næsje, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance, said to NRK news.

It’s not the regular border traffic which is the main target, but the irregular border traffic, Asle Farberg, head of the customs region east  department said. The irregular traffic include things like heavily laden carriages passing unmanned border crossings between the hours of 4 and 6 every morning on weekends.

– That’s a type of pattern that allows us to target our control resources to the activity,  Farberg says .

By storing both registration numbers, the time where the vehicle passed by and images of all the cars in a database for up to six months  Customs introduces what amounts to mass surveillance of the innocent victims, the Data Inspectorate Director Bjørn Erik Thon says.

He is concerned that the information could be used by others.
– We envisage that other agencies, like be the police, tax authorities or NAV, will also be interested in getting hold of this information in order to investigate matters and cases in its area,  Thon says.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today