Feds Undertaking Massive Passenger Profiling Plan

Logic Bomb writes: "The Washington Post is running an overview of a rather big-brother-ish airline passenger screening system the government is proposing. Keeping track of people's ticket purchases is one thing, but correlating people's addresses and living arrangements...! This attempt seems closer to completion and implementation than any other that's been proposed so far."

Comments

It's your own fault.

[Krapangor]

In Europe we have information protecting laws which forbid such things. And we have these laws because some dudes sued at the constitutional courts and these court order the goverments to make such laws. You didn't fight for such things and claimed it to be "overregulation". And now your govs are fucking you up. So don't wine about being oppressed. Freedom is something you have to fight for. Everyday.

You've got the data, now what?

[Rogerborg]

This article raises a lot more questions than it answers.

• If most of the records are going to be on US citizens, are we saying that US citizens pose a real threat? The September 11th murderers were all foreign, travelling openly on foreign passports. I assume we'll tie in the CIA database on foreign citizens, but do we assume a foreigner citizen not in the database is higher risk or lower risk than US citizens in the database? Does "no information" mean "assume innocent" or "assume guilt"?
• What are the complete criteria for being promoted up the danger list? Being a member of a state militia? Being a muslim? Being a member of a citizen's right organization that has criticized these plans?
• What are the criteria for getting off the danger list? Renounce your evil ways? Join the Republican Party? Report X acts of unpatriotism to the Office of Homeland Security? If you think I'm joking about this last one, go read about the McCarthy Communist witch hunts. This shit actually happened to real people in the USA within living memory, and it can happen again if we allow it to.
• Who'll be responsible for administrating the database query? Local law enforcement? The new minimum wage "Federal Security Employees"? The FBI? The NSA?
• Who'll oversee the people who run the database querying and ensure that the results and responses are both accurate and appropriate? Are we going to wait until we've tazered and maced the entourage of some royal Saudi scion before we start to question the system?
• How do you find out what information is in there about you? Is asking about it unpatriotic and dangerous behaviour? Remember, this is all about how the government views your behaviour, not about facts that have been challenged and proven in a court of law.
• How do you get your information corrected if it's wrong? Who do you go to if the administrators refuse to correct it?
• Is the system going to pop up a "It is 67% probable that this person is a terrorist" box and let the minimum wage security guard make the decision about how to handle that? Last week, Joe was flipping burgers; this week he's got a shiny new gun and a shiny new badge, and has to make an instant decision about how to confront a presumed armed and dangerous subject. Is the system going to make it easy for Joe, and say "80% probability, recommend taser and mace, call for armed backup"? Or is it just going to set off a binary "Take 'em down!" alarm, based on crossing some arbitrary threshold of probability?

OK, let's hear the arguments in favour of it, but whatever they are, I contend that if we put in place a vast, complex, expensive system that is too problematical to use, then all we're doing is spending Federal money to perform a PR exercise for the airline industry.

And if we do use it, then god help us all. I never, ever want to hear this phrase spoken to me or to anyone else:

"The computer says you're 67% likely to be guilty, based on your past actions and associations. We're not going to release you until you can prove your loyalty."

My Airline Security Story

[FFFish]

I'm sure a lot of us have stories about the utter stupidity of so-called airport "security."

I fly once in a blue moon. As a result, I'm not exactly up-to-speed on the new security paranoia. I go to check in, and answer some silly questions, none of which include "are you carrying anything sharp -- a knife, nail clipper, knitting needles, that sort of thing?"

My luggage goes through. I waste an hour waiting to for the boarding call. It comes. I enter the security area. Toss my coat and carry-on onto the xray, and I'm about to walk through the metal detector. Then I remember my car keys. I step back, take 'em out, toss 'em into a tray.

The security guard just about shits herself. "Is that a knife?!" she asks. "Er, yah?" I reply. It's my little keychain knife. It's as sharp as a spoon and has a 1/2" blade. I use it for opening envelopes and potato chip bags.

Well, my god, you'd think it was the discovery of the century. She literally grabs them from my hand and goes frantic removing my knife from the key ring. Does not ask to look at them, does not ask if she can fuck with my property, and then hands me a bullshit line about either throwing it out or mailing it to myself. I got rude about that: it's not a cheap knife, and there's no post office in the airport.

It ended up being checked in as luggage, in an envelope and an enormous plastic bag. Must have cost the airline 3x what the knife was worth.

Anyway, the security bitch took my name. I suppose I'm in some database now as a badass, to be cavity-searched next time I come within a mile of an airport.

Now, what really pisses me off is the implied insult in the whole thing. They really think I'm stupid enough to believe that the security check has anything to do with making the plane safe!

I could have carried a 6" lexan dagger through the metal detector and they'd *NEVER* have known about it. I could have walked through with plastic explosive in my shoes. I could have run piano wire through my belt and used it as a garrot. I probably could have walked on with a glass bottle of Coke.

Or I could have snapped the pull-out handle off my carry-on luggage, and weilded two 16" long sharp-pointed metal sticks.

Or I could be trained in the martial arts, and way more dangerous than most anyone who is carrying a weapon.

(Or if I'd left the damn knife in my pocket, I'd probably have cleared the metal detector: it didn't detect my belt buckle, which contains about 10x the metal content of the knife!)

THERE IS NO FUCKING SECURITY ON AN AIRPLANE!

I am deeply insulted that the airlines are playing this stupid little game of pretending to make us safe by disposing of our nail clippers. That isn't improving our security at all. It's just an insult.

I'm also PO'd that the check-in desk isn't suggesting to passengers that they think about any sharp objects that might be confiscated, and consder checking them in with the luggage.

And I'd like to slap the bitch that was so rude about it all. I'm going through a small-town Canadian airport, riding a piddling small jet, and I'm carring a piddling small knife. It wasn't the find of the century: it was an obvious mistake, and she should have politely asked me to step aside and remove the knife myself.

It also pisses me off that the best I can do is gripe about it all here on Slashdot, because if I go to the airport and talk to her supervisor, I'll probably be filed in some freaking Interpol database as Dr. Evil.

Ok, your turn: what's your airport security horror story?