By TChris

The Vegas traveler should no longer rely on the axiom, "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas." When the FBI comes calling, Vegas hotels willingly disclose guest information. Seeking to compare hotel registration records to "a U.S. master list of suspected terrorists" in response to concerns associated with the elevated threat level during the holidays, the FBI encountered only one hotel that put up even token resistence. That hotel requested the issuance of a subpoena (known as a "friendly" subpoena), presumably to provide cover for hotel management if guests expecting anonymity were to complain.

As the ACLU points out, the free availability of private information to law enforcement agencies is troubling.

A representative of the American Civil Liberties Union said the demand for guest records, without any individual suspicion, infringed on the privacy of as many as 300,000 people "whose leisure activities are no one's business but their own."

The action also showed the FBI's expanded, post-Sept. 11 power to obtain personal records without judicial review or suspicion about an individual "may well be used to monitor ordinary Americans," said Timothy Edgar, the ACLU's legislative counsel.

The need for this sort of information might be legitimate, given a legitimate threat, but the ever-increasing power of law enforcement to obtain records that people generally regard as private, without judicial authorization, is unhealthy. Until that trend changes, remember ... nothing stays in Vegas any more.