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Passenger Risk Database to be Implemented in U.S.
bluephile writes "CNN is running an article on the The Transport Security Administration's (TSA) renewed efforts to implement the CAPPS II color-coded passenger risk-assessment program, despite outcries by numerous privacy activism groups at the program's collection and redistribution of personal information. The TSA has made several claims that the system respects passengers' privacy, but their track record isn't impressive. Congress suspended the program last year in order to investigate its privacy implications. One MIT paper suggests that CAPPS II could make flying MORE dangerous, rather than less."
This may be obvious, but this is yet one more reason that re-affirms my pre-9/11 decision to not fly anymore unless I'm absolutely forced into it, and I'm very inventive about finding justification for other means (such as driving).
I've had it with the airline industry and their rather poor attempt at feel-good security (which isn't security at all). I have no intention of becoming part of the grand experiment of how an agency or company can screw up and compromise my financial records and my privacy even more. I simply will not be their guinea pig.
The more complex they make these systems, the more points of failure they add.
I'm lucky in that I'm at a job that doesn't require me to fly, and anywhere I need to reach in North America, I can do so with my car. Properly planned without a panic-timeframe schedule, such trips can actually be enjoyable, in and of themselves.
You know who else had flare? The Nazis also had flare. They made the Jews wear it. -Office Space -
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If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
I wonder if this will be about as useless as our fabled Homeland Security "Orange Alerts"?
In order for this to be as useless as the Homeland Security system, they'd need to ground all airplanes every time someone gets red-flagged. The Homeland Security system is so broad in its effects, every time the security level is raised, police throughout the country, even in places terrorists couldn't care less about, need to put in overtime guarding pointless "targets". For example, a village with a population of 50 in the middle of Wyoming would be required to have a full-time guard on the water tower!
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
Until there's a better way, air passengers should ship their baggage ahead of time, on cargo planes. Once their baggage is received at their destination, they receive an email/voicemail receipt, or ship another on a priority cargo flight. Carryon is limited to stuff like books or magazines - AV entertainment is supplied by the airline, if at all. This plan minimizes not only the risk of weapons, but also the schlepping of crap through airports. Everything is simplified and made cheaper, as well as increasing the passenger capacity of planes.
--
make install -not war
I would guess it works something like SpamAssassin. You've got a bunch of attributes and it goes to your score.
Like if you are 40 years old, and you have a credit report that shows you never taking a loan or having an account balance, that would be unusual.
If you have had a house mortgage for the last 20 years, that would lower your score.
And hey, before you go nuts, I lived there and have very good friends there, but with the current government scenario, I no longer wish to participate in the smoke and mirror parade which is the American dream, in any respect, and thus I'm not going to the States again until it changes.
You'll see. The American flight industry will suffer from this, grandly...
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
What I'm worried about is that every time they pull your credit report, your rating goes down. Lower ratings means higher interest on any loan/mortgage/etc.
/. postings as an input too?
If they pull a credit report for each ticket, then personally I prefer a luggage search over a higher interest rate. Otherwise it makes those airplane tickets rather expensive...
But I haven't seen a confirmation yet that they are actually pulling a credit report from one of 'the three'. Maybe they're using an intermediate company that collects copies of reports that were pulled earlier for other reasons, or something. Or maybe they're not pulling a new report each time you fly (I certainly hope so).
Are they using
--- Hindsight is 20/20, but walking backwards is not the answer.
So what if I'm accidentally tagged as red/orange? How impossible would it be for me to clear up the mistake? Or can I do 20 years of community service to have my color lowered to yellow.
Bad, bad, BAD idea.
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
Let's color-code everybody in the US, and publish that information on the web! Then we'll all know exactly who to blacklist, harrass, and run out of our neighborhoods for being "Un-American"! After all, "Better dead than red!"
Or better still:
It's better to die on your feet, than to live on your knees.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
For example, a village with a population of 50 in the middle of Wyoming would be required to have a full-time guard on the water tower!
Great example. That reminds me of something I found interesting. Earlier this year, I got in a conversation with someone that worked for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation whose job became miserable because of these terror alerts. Every time one came down the wire, they had to send crews out to every major overpass in Oklahoma every hour as well as performing mass inspections over all the major roads in the state every single day. Everyone there had to work overtime all the time to keep all that going for every alert. The alerts became so frequent and proved to be so pointless that the entire department actually started deliberately ignoring the warnings because it cost them SO much time, effort money to respond to them while other, more important things weren't getting done.
You cannot appeal it. It is only a gauge of how likely it is that you are a terrorist. You can't prove that you arn't one, and even if you arn't, the colour only represents the CHANCE that you are, not whether or not you ACTUALLY are. If you get a red, that just means you probably are according to their metrics. You can't prove that wrong.
My dad, a Canadian citizin, is a high risk flyer. Whenever he tries to come back from a conference in Portland, he has a HELL of a time getting on the plane. The reason he is on their list of terrorists? My mom's sister in Toronto is married to a guy from Lebanon. So you see, to be ranked a danger, you need only be related to somebody who is related to somebody who is related to an Arab. (And belive me, they know) To make matters worse, the LAST time he tried to get on, his luggage set off the bomb detector. Apparently, the chemical sniffer said his external CD-RW was some form of platic explosives. I knew they could be fooled by cologne, aftershave, mouthwash, deoderant, and shampoo, but apparently they can also be fooled by "new electronics smell."
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
Moved from Southern California to Vancouver, B.C. last month. It's hard to put your finger on why, but it feels good enough to compensate for the lousy winter weather. Canada is not perfect by any means, but at least now I don't pay taxes to Bush or Arnold, neither of whom represented my friends and neighbors in any way, and my home country's army hasn't killed many people today. Right now, I feel more free. I hope it lasts.
Your post is funny but it also makes a very good point.
Al Quada by spending a few hundred thousand dollars has caused the US economy hundreds of billions of dollars. As a direct result of smashing three airplanes into three buildings then have wiped out the US surplus.
More troubling they have added untold amount of friction into the economy. The govt and commercial sector now spend enourmous amounts of money on security and background checks. Business is more risk averse. The real long term effects are not known yet but I don't think there is any doubt it has made a permanent dent in the competitiveness of US business.
Finally the subsequent actions of GW have in all likelyhood made people all over the less likely to buy American products. Even if 1% of the world population decides to cut back on US products by 10% it will make a noticable impact on the profitability of US companies.
Quite the ROI from a terrorist perspective.
War is necrophilia.