Ask Slashdot: How To Determine If One Is On a Watchlist?

An anonymous reader writes: On Slashdot, we joke about it all the time: 'I did a Google search for 'pressure cooker' and I connected a bunch of times to the Tor network to download some Linux distribution .torrent files... I must be on some sort of watchlist now.' There have been news articles about people being questioned in airports and given special attention for being political activists. How can one determine is one is on a watchlist of some sort? Are there any Slashdot users who are knowingly on a watchlist? What sort of suspicious special attention have you received?

Comments

Are you alive? You are on a watchlist.

[ShaunC]

Do you use the internet? You are on a watchlist. The more interesting question would be which ones, and of course most of us have no way to know.

I spend a lot of time reading and commenting on current events on another site, and I like to back up my comments with citations, so this leads me to Google all sorts of things. Offhand today I've searched for feces swastika (re: the U of Missouri stuff) and officers shot or killed (a story about one officer shooting another off-duty officer). Last night I was reading a thread about the Mazda RDX and so I Googled RDX; RDX is also the name of a military explosive. Around that time I was also searching for various terms related to the Missouri protests.

Some overzealous algorithm might see a person searching for RDX and Mizzou and officer and shooting all within close proximity, and get me on a list I really would rather not be on. That's one of the big problems with automated bulk surveillance, I imagine it's connecting a lot of dots that truly aren't connected.

See you on the list!

In My Case ...

[DakotaSmith]

In my particular case, I first learned I was on a terrorist watch list in 2004, when I renewed my drivers' license.

The lady at DMV informed me of it, and said there would be an additional three-week wait for my license while they did a background check on me.

Ever since, every time I've flown, I've been pulled aside for additional searches and questioning,

The fun part is that there's no way to get off the list. I've now have three Congressman and a Senator from two different States tell me this.

The really infuriating part is that I suffer from an anxiety disorder. The only danger to those around me is if I go off my meds and then fly to pieces so fast people get hit by the shrapnel.

Re:All of us

[meerling]

I'd be shocked if I wasn't with the way those paranoid asshats 'work' since I was in the military as a Munitions Systems Specialist (IYAAYAS!), and am an old school computer geek, and several other things that though totally legal, are things the paranoid TLAs (3 letter acronym/agency) has listed as stuff the are paranoid about. So yeah, I always assume they are reading my every posts, and by now their file must be getting full because I like to sprinkle in the occasional keyword like terrorist or explosives just to try and trigger their alert script. I figured if the creeps are spying on me without a warrant and valid suspicions, I should make their work as hard as possible! Personally I haven't met many people from any of those groups, but the few I have were uniformly egotistical, paranoid, irrational, and rather low on the intellect scales. I'm sure there must be somebody intelligent working for them, and pity that poor damned soul.

Re:Don't even need to board it ...

[sconeu]

Happened to me once... Was heading to Vermont to pick up my daughter from college. For various reasons, it was easier to split it up into two one-way flights (mostly to guarantee adjoining seats on the return flight).

Anyways, I couldn't check in online. I go to the counter to check in, and was asked a bunch of leading questions ("You're going to Logan, right?" "No, Burlington Vermont!") over and over. Eventually I checked in.

While waiting for the gate, I realized... I hit all the flags... Male, travelling alone, no bags, one way.... DING DING DING DING!!