Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

CAPPS 2 Back to the Drawing Board

Posted by michael on from the holy-water-and-silver-weapons dept.

dagnabit writes "Just saw this over at MSNBC. Apparently Tom Ridge is revising CAPPS II due to the lawsuits and complaints from some Congresscritters As an alternative, the TSA is hoping frequent travellers will voluntarily give up their info..."

8 of 191 comments (clear)

  1. build a database you mean... by garcia · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From this article at Wired:

    "The Department of Homeland Security and the TSA feel very strongly we should not move forward on any program that in any way infringes on preserving our freedoms," Stone said. "That is first and foremost."

    Which really means, "we thought that people would just go along with us because we snuck every other piece of bullshit legislation through without notice but we were wrong."

    The system, as originally proposed, would require all passengers to provide extra information when booking a ticket -- information that airlines don't currently ask for, like addresses, phone numbers and dates of birth. The system would then check that information against databases of criminals and terrorists and assign each passenger a green, yellow or red score, according to perceived risk.
    Civil-liberties groups from the left and right have gained powerful allies on Capitol Hill by arguing the system is both too invasive and ineffective.

    Damn straight it's ineffective. The 9/11 terrorists were already in the country legally. What the hell good would this do? They were already flying planes. Would knowing their dates of birth and their addresses have helped? Nope.

    Privacy firebrand Bill Scannell, whose DontSpyOnUs website has targeted companies such as JetBlue and Delta Airlines for working with the TSA, welcomed news of changes to CAPPS II, but argued the TSA did not go far enough.

    "They should shut down this anti-democratic project and put it into a security system that works," Scannell said. "Instead of retooling, they should junk the entire system and improve physical security."

    No way! Improve physical security? You mean like stop worrying about having an algorithm figure stuff out and do it manually? That's work, no way! Plus, we wouldn't be able to create a large database of information on airline passengers that could be easily accessed by other agencies in the on-going fight to end freedom, errr I mean terrorism.

    1. Re:build a database you mean... by TopShelf · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Damn straight it's ineffective. The 9/11 terrorists were already in the country legally. What the hell good would this do? They were already flying planes. Would knowing their dates of birth and their addresses have helped? Nope.

      I may be off base here, but weren't a few of them wanted for various warrents? Such a system could conceivably allow authorities to make an arrest before they get on the plane. It would seem at least that checking passenger ID's against police and FBI wanted lists would make sense...

      --
      Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
    2. Re:build a database you mean... by Qzukk · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Profiling Doesn't
      Work.

      Any system that decides to ignore people who don't fit its narrow world view is a FAILURE. If nobody cared about the guy with the british passport, would the flight have been saved? Would the arrests in Texas have been made if all the agents were out tailing Pakistanis or Iraqis?

      As for CAPPS II, it had a whole host of problems rather than just collecting public data into a single place. Color coding was designed to be loose so that the person could move you up if you "looked" suspicious, or asked questions (in fact, IIRC, asking questions automatically escalated you). The database was not available for review or correction (the fact that our government insists on using bad data scares me more than anything else. But then again the whole Iraq mess proves that our government thrives on error). The list only goes on from there. That underpaid screener who just got laid off? They took your entire identity with them, and now have themselves a "raise". No auditing of usage of the data is almost as bad as the lack of review of the data.

      --
      If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
  2. At least they are thinking by The0retical · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It is good to see that the US government is finally seeing that people do not want their right to privacy infringed upon. If they want to do something like the CAPPSII program it should be instituted voluntarily. Several airlines are already doing this and a rigorous background check to ensure the passengers are safe when they run them through an express check in. If anything US citizens should have their constitutional rights protected and if THEY should decide to give them up it was their decision for convenience of skipping the line.

  3. Dumb? by Hard_Code · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Aren't "frequent" flyers the ones we care the least about? I mean, if you are dead from hijacking a plane, you typically don't go on many more flights.

    "Roger, this passenger has taken 2000 flights in the last 10 years...you know...I have this suspicion he is UP TO SOMETHING!"

    --

    It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
  4. Live data? by sczimme · · Score: 4, Insightful


    From the article:

    Airlines, some facing lawsuits, have been caught up in the controversy because they provided passenger information for use in testing the screening system.

    Has no one there heard of 'dummy data'? Live data - particularly sensitive data - is a no-no in the testing environment. In many cases this is simply because the developers have absolutely no need-to-know; in other instances it is possible for live data to escape the test environment via generated reports, bug reports (e.g. SSNs ending in 4 cause $PROBLEM), etc.

    --
    I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
  5. European data exchange? by angusr · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I wonder if this will have any effect on the planned (and contraversial, although little heard about in the mainstream press) data exchange from EU airlines to the US?

    There does seem to be a fallacy going around in intelligence circles that all that is required for good security is as much data as can possibly be obtained - which of course isn't the case. What is required is good and timely analysis of relevant good quality data. Airlines can't even book seats correctly 100% of the time - what are the chances that their data is going to be good quality 100% of the time?

  6. Remember? by Mishkin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    remember one the first things that Bush said after 9/11?

    We will not allow these terrorists to change our way of life.


    heh. right.