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Biometric Terrorist Detector

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the tell-the-machine-everything-you-know dept.

neutralino writes "The Wall Street Journal has this story about a biometric airport security system which uses biometric responses — blood pressure, pulse and sweat levels — to series of questions ("Are you smuggling drugs?") to identify passengers with "hostile intent." According to the article, "In the latest Israeli trial, the system caught 85% of the role-acting terrorists, meaning that 15% got through, and incorrectly identified 8% of innocent travelers as potential threats, according to corporate marketing materials.""

11 of 322 comments (clear)

  1. 8% false positives? Absolutely useless. by XorNand · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The busiest airports in the world handle 30-80 million passengers per year. With an 8% false positive rate, a 30M/year airport would flag almost 8,800 innocent people per day, per airport as a terrorist. How can this be considered even remotely feasible? Even if getting flagged just means that you have to undergo a more rigorous personal inspection it's going to piss off a lot of passengers. Plus the TSA people aren't going to put much creedance into something that dramatically increases their daily workload, but might catch one terrorist every decade. Just another misuse of expensive technology.

    --
    Entrepreneur : (noun), French for "unemployed"
    1. Re:8% false positives? Absolutely useless. by rolfwind · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not to mention the difference between a "role-acting" terrorist and a real terrorist.

  2. Great technology! by Kagura · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think this is what we've been waiting for. Some method to intuitively deduce whether a person is telling a fib! The only thing this device is really missing is a name. How about ... the Polygraph? Wow, kind of catchy!

  3. Replicant detector? by JonTurner · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Remind anyone else of: "You're in the desert. You see a turtle on its back and it can't flip over. Unless it gets on its feet it will die. But you won't help it. You're going to let it die. Why is that?" (paraphrased.)

    1. Re:Replicant detector? by JonTurner · · Score: 5, Funny

      Here's a good link the rest of the Replicant questions... asked of San Francisco Mayoral candidates.
      http://www.thewavemag.com/printarticle.php?article id=24031

  4. on top of that by Loconut1389 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... their statistics are based on actors- who can't reasonably be expected to have genuine responses to those types of questions.

    I bet there are quite a high percentage of people who, just by hooking them up to the polygraph apparatus (which is basically what we're talking about) would have elevated levels and potentially have a panic attack in some percentage of the population.

    I'm betting they wouldn't even require a licensed (or certified, or whatever) polygrapher to run it, further decreasing the accuracy on an already questionable technology.

  5. Sounds great! Here's my solution though by Rik+Sweeney · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you see anyone acting suspiciously, security can walk up to them and ask

    "terroristsayswhat?"

    most of them will reply

    "what?"

    proving that they are a terrorist.

    Bingo! A solution that's just as reliable as a lie detector test...

    --
    Summation 2
  6. Oscar Wilde by Rik+Sweeney · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can just imagine him in today's society:

    I have nothing to declare except my genius

    Security! We have a terrorist mastermind in our midst! Get him!

    --
    Summation 2
  7. Polygraph Tests? by spyinnzus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This looks a whole lot like a polygraph test, which has been considered in court an unnecessary breach of privacy. You can't use them for evidence and you can't use them for interviews (unless you're the FBI). So what gives us the legal precedent to use them on travelers?

    1. Re:Polygraph Tests? by kansas1051 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Polygraphs aren't admissible in U.S. courts because they aren't considered reliable evidence of anything and not for any reasons related to privacy. As others have pointed out, there are many ways to game polygraph machines to achieve any desired result. Based on this fact, polygraphs fail the Frye and Daubert tests normally employed by courts to determine if scientific evidence can be admitted.

      Regarding your second point, the government doesn't need any legal precedent to require you to take a polygraph before boarding an airline. Job applicants at the FBI and CIA are all forced to take polygraphs as part of the application process, even though polygraphs are junk science. As we have no right to travel by air, the government can impossible any conditions it wishes on air travel provided the restrictions are rationally related to safety.

  8. Re:Fair point but... by 0123456 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Have you ever travelled through an Israeli airport? The mere idea that we could adopt similar policies in an airport as busy as, say, Heathrow is mind-bogglingly stupid.

    They're also useless: every time I've been to Israel I've had to suffer third-degree searching on the way in and out. Oddly enough, I'm not a terrorist, and I also have no desire to fly to or from Israel again: they don't care, because they put security above happy travellers, but the rest of the world has different priorities.