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Passenger Profiling: CAPPS II
gabec writes "'Initial rollout of what may eventually become the world's largest silicon repository of personal data could be less than 90 days away....The Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System II (CAPPS II) is designed to scan multiple public and private databases for information on individuals traveling into and out of the United States. The system will feed the results to an analysis application that mathematically ranks travelers' potential as security threats.' It will happen by the end of the year, if nothing is done to stop it: And
here
are
some
articles
on
this."
For when slahdotting one site just isnt enough...
oh wait, I forget no one reads the articles, nevermind.
Moderation Totals: Flamebait=2, Troll=1, Redundant=1, Insightful=6, Overrated=1, Underrated=1, Total=12. (not mine)
Lets just hope none of those F00F bugs start popping back up...
"I propose we leave math to the machines and go play outside" -- Calvin
They'll never let me on a plane, what with my nick and all.
"I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq"
-- Paul Wolfowitz, 7/21/2003
What if the entire system ran on Linux? Now you don't know what the hell to do, do you?
Canada has its downsides too. Have you ever tried to get a coffee and a donut here at 7am? It's not pretty.
rejected (19) accepted (0)
Is there a psychological term related to getting your stories rejected on slashdot?
Here it is.. Passenger p = getPassenger();
// positive means they are bad guys. let's initalize to zero.
// TODO: are there any white terrorists?
// TODO: there may be more religions..check on that
// Thank goodness the source code is closed!!
// TODO: should known terrorists be considered security threats?
// TODO: why is this here again? better leave it for now..
// Book em, danno
p.securityThreatScore = 0.0;
if (isMiddleEast(p.nationality)) { p.securityThreatScore += 10.0; }
if (isMiddleEast(p.destination)) { p.securityThreatScore += 10.0; }
if (isMiddleEast(p.origin)) { p.securityThreatScore += 20.0; }
if (hasDarkSkin(p.race)) {
p.securityThreatScore += 20.0;
} else {
p.securityThreatScore -= 50.0;
}
if (p.religion == Religion.CHRISTIAN || p.religion = Religion.JEWISH) {
p.securityThreatScore -= 100.0;
} else {
p.securityThreatScore += 100.0;
}
if (p.gender == Religion.FEMALE && p.age >= 18 && p.age <= 28) {
p.securityThreatScore += 500.0;
p.searchOptions.fullStrip = true;
p.searchOptions.bodyCavities = true;
}
if (knownTerroristsDatabase.contains(p)) {
p.securityThreatScore = Math.random(-100.0, 100.0);
}
if (Math.random() > 0.5) {
p.securityThreatScore = -p.securityThreatScore;
}
if (p.securityThreatScore > 0.0) {
Dialog d = new Dialog(SUSPECTED TERRORIST!!);
}
The search will say about me. I always wanted to know what the FBI thought of me in the 1960's when they investigated my father for high security clearence when he worked for General Dynamics.
I can see it now: "Mostly harmless"
Great. Now I'm going to get SPAM that reads:
"Have a poor terror score? No problem!"
"Get plane tickets with bad or no terror info!"
"Poor terror index? No terror index? We can help!"
"Repair your terror history instantly!"
moto411.com
Albeit a big one. The current system's source code looks like this:
if skin == brown then threat = high
This is just as great an invasion of civil rights as somebody checking out what you bought on EBay. Of course it might not seem like it if one hasn't been unjustly targetted because of one's race before.
___
Cogito cogito, ergo cogito sum.
Customer: "I thought you said the ticket was $125!"
Ticket Girl: "Well, yes. But you owe taxes for 1987, have five unpaid parking tickets in NYC, and you, (pauses), heh, have an unpaid citation for, heh, urinating in public that you got in June of '92."
Customer: (red faced). "Uh, look, I was drunk, I mean, i looked.... *sigh*, just whatever. How much?"
Ticket girl: "that'll be $790.45"
Customer: "Fine, whatever" (hands her the money)
Ticket girl: "Remember, there are bathrooms conveniently located at the fore and aft of the plane" (makes stewardess hand gestures.
Customer: "Just, just shut up."
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
krenshala
Anyway, that's what passed for sophisticated screening back when they were real concerned about young tourists coming back from Taiwan, where my passport showed I'd spent the last few months. Consider where it goes when they not only look to see if you're somehow unusual, but make sure your credit history is thoroughly mainstream, and you're not behind on college loans, and they haven't correlated your /. handle and posts with your passport ID ... a whole lot of people getting grabbed by the balls for nothing but the fun of the customs a*holes, and a lucky few getting indefinite detention without charges or legal representation, or even publication of their names.
Of course 80% of Americans don't even have a passport, so it's just the coastal elites and foreigners who will complain. Who needs foreign travel when we can always visit Texas? To view anything more primitive, colorful or barbaric than what we can find in Texas you'd have to find the last tribe of canibals in the last acre of rain forest ... and that's about gone anyway. Ah, America, fast becoming the Texas of the world.
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
If we are refused permission to fly, are we allowed to get our CAPPS II report free for 60 days?
Or perhaps we'll get endless pop-up adverts for CAPPS II monitoring services: "Worried that your terrorist score might have gone up? Get your report monitored for $10 per month."