by Chris Burt, Activist Post:

A network for sharing biometrics, demographics and other data about visitors, migrants and other travelers has ballooned in scope and amount of data shared, but mostly out of the watchful eye of the public, journalists, and even national regulatory authorities, according to an investigation reported by RNZ.

The “Migration 5” is an arrangement for sharing data of people crossing the border of any Five Eyes country: New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United States, or the UK.

Independent research by a Fulbright scholar at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, shows that since New Zealand began sharing data with its partners in 2011, the volume of data exchanged has exploded. A Secure Real-Time Platform was already in development that year, and while it does not automatically exchange biographical data, manual searches appear to be rising rapidly.