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False Positives, Few Matches Plague 'No-Fly' List

Posted by timothy on from the measure-twice-cut-once dept.

lindner writes "According to a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle, the United States No-Fly List uses a soundex algorithm to match names. Designed 'to quickly summon passenger names or to catch deal-hunting passengers making duplicate bookings.' The system has only managed to rack up a slew of false-positives, including everyone matching soundex ("J. Adams") at one point in time. The problem has gotten so bad that there is now a "Fly List" for chronically misidentified passengers."

15 of 325 comments (clear)

  1. Heard about this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    This also happened when Cowboy Neal was mistakenly identified as Kh'alid bin Naoul.

  2. now what? by Darth+Fredd · · Score: 2, Funny

    Do they stop using the technology? Do they update it? Do they decide to keep using it, what the heck? Do the innocents rebel?

    Tune in next time to "Lets listen in!"

    --
    "The most looniest, zaniest, spontaneous, sporadic Impulsive thinker, compulsive drinker, addict"
  3. Re:Deal-Hunting is illegal? by BWJones · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm a little confused... are the airlines now prohibiting people to fly on the basis that they went "deal-hunting"?

    I understand that the airline industry is a little tight right now, but that's just insane.

    Yeah, the current administration wants everyone to be paying full fare here. We gotta start getting this economy back on track, so those that refuse to participate will be identified as terrorists and placed into the TIA archive. :-)

    --
    Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
  4. Recording Industry of American Airlines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    So when did the RIAA start running the airlines?

  5. Re:The problem... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    There doesn't seem to be an easy solution to this problem.

    Sure there is. All Middle Eastern males between the ages 15 and 65 fly naked under the supervision of an armed federal marshal. If they make too much noise or otherwise refuse to act appropriately for a visit to the United States, they are denied entry or deported. They receive the ashes of their passport in the mail a few days later.

    Sorry, but am I the only one a little bit sick of everybody blaming the US government for everything? They didn't create the current situation, they're dealing with it. One of you guys who thinks they're so goddamn smart write a better algorithm for keeping the troublemakers out of the US.

  6. Man... by Faust7 · · Score: 5, Funny
    Many airlines rely on name-searching software derived from "Soundex," a 120- year-old indexing system first used in the 1880 U.S. census.

    ...and you thought mainframes were legacy technology.

    --
    The coolest voice ever.
  7. Pity the unfortunately named by sssmashy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Soundex gives each name a key using its first letter and dropping the vowels and giving number codes to similar-sounding vowels (like "S" and "C"). The system gives the same code, L350, for "Laden" and all similar-sounding names: Lydon, Lawton, and Leedham.

    Boy, I'd hate to be a guy with a name like "Sam Lawton" or something. I wonder how many similarly-named middle-aged salesmen are getting red-flagged on flights... because you just never know, what if Osama Bin Laden disguised as a portly white guy from Milwaukee, and he never bothered to pick a false name that sounded sufficiently different from the original.

  8. I bet Amanda... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...Hugginkiss is catching all kinds of grief.

  9. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  10. Re:Soundex??? by Old+Wolf · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's a bit insulting to first-years, don't you think?
    On my course, in the section on name recognition, we first learned Soundex, and then learned Obershelp, along with the fact that the latter is far more accurate, and Soundex is pretty crap.

    Perhaps it was written by people with no education..

  11. Re:The problem... by eyegone · · Score: 5, Funny

    Before 9/11 we had Timothy McVeigh and no one was hollering that rednecks shouldn't be allowed to drive trucks.

    I've been hollering that rednecks shouldn't be allowed to drive trucks (or anything else) since I moved to Texas in '96.

    --
    "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
  12. Conspiracy theory. by The+Creator · · Score: 2, Funny

    The system was never intended to catch terrorists.

    --

    FRA: STFU GTFO
  13. This had me laughing so hard... by mark-t · · Score: 4, Funny
    ... I had to take a break to catch my breath.

    From the article:

    Soundex gives each name a key using its first letter and dropping the vowels and giving number codes to similar-sounding vowels (like "S" and "C").
    Hate to break it to these guys but neither "S" nor "C" are vowels. Heck, they don't even make vowel sounds.

    Geeze, no wonder the system is broken.

    --
    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
  14. Re:The problem... by cyberformer · · Score: 3, Funny

    The odds of you being killed in the U.S. by a terrorist is so small that only an ignortant and fearfull population would even worry about it.
    So you just have to replace the current population?

  15. Re:Soundex??? by Surak · · Score: 4, Funny

    But to me, finding terrorists by checking their names against no-fly lists sounds just about as useful as checking IP packets for an Evil bit, doesn't it?

    Are you trying to tell me that the RFC 3514 patch I wrote for the Linux kernel back in April is useless?!

    --
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