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Travelers' Electronics At US Airports To Get Enhanced Screening, TSA Says (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Aviation security officials will begin enhanced screening measures of passengers' electronics at US airports, the Transportation Security Administration announced Wednesday. Travelers must remove electronics larger than a mobile phone from their carry-on bags and "place them in a bin with nothing on top or below, similar to how laptops have been screened for years. This simple step helps TSA officers obtain a clearer X-ray image," the TSA announced amid growing fears that electronic devices can pose as homemade bombs. The TSA was quick to point out that the revised security measures do not apply to passengers enrolled in the TSA Precheck program.
"Whether you're flying to, from, or within the United States, TSA is committed to raising the baseline for aviation security by strengthening the overall security of our commercial aviation network to keep flying as a safe option for everyone," TSA Acting Administrator Huban A. Gowadia said. "It is critical for TSA to constantly enhance and adjust security screening procedures to stay ahead of evolving threats and keep passengers safe. By separating personal electronic items such as laptops, tablets, e-readers and handheld game consoles for screening, TSA officers can more closely focus on resolving alarms and stopping terror threats."
"Whether you're flying to, from, or within the United States, TSA is committed to raising the baseline for aviation security by strengthening the overall security of our commercial aviation network to keep flying as a safe option for everyone," TSA Acting Administrator Huban A. Gowadia said. "It is critical for TSA to constantly enhance and adjust security screening procedures to stay ahead of evolving threats and keep passengers safe. By separating personal electronic items such as laptops, tablets, e-readers and handheld game consoles for screening, TSA officers can more closely focus on resolving alarms and stopping terror threats."
Pre-check is totally worth it. I don't know why more people don't use it. Your privacy is already shot going on a commercial flight, anyway.
I don't respond to AC's.
So you you pay extra money you get special privileges in what use to be a freedom (travel). So much for the US Revolution and the Declaration of Independence
Compared to the standard security controls at most airports in the EU, the TSA is very permissive.
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talk about creating your own market. This used to be classed as a racket. Now it's national security
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
So it's juggling with 5 more plastic bins one handed while the other hand tries to hold pants up because your belt is in one of them.
I'd like to apologize to the people behind me but it's in our both interest that I put belt and shoes on before I start moving again.
I don't care about having to spread out the contents of my luggage or having to strip down, but having to do so in a queue is a terrible idea! NOT EVERYONE CAN TIE THEIR SHOELACES WHILE STANDING ON ONE LEG. Espescially not while pressured to move from the guy behind you. A simple bench to help you put on your shoes again would work wonders. Then a little space to pack or unpack your stuff or little trolleys to move your stack of bins away from the x-ray quickly....
bickerdyke
Why don't they just forgo all the niceties and security theater? Just hire proctologists to replace the TSA staff. Think of the early colon cancer detection rates.
Why can't we go back to using jumpers to configure slot adapter cards? Why? I say!
No, they're talking about electronics. I imagine that "enhanced screening" means that they take your 14" laptop and return a 17" one to you.
Ezekiel 23:20
Practically everything the TSA does is security theater anyways, this is just another one of a long list of not really effective things they do to make a big show and make everyone 'feel' safer.
I'd rather they spend that money on things that work, or on almost literally anything else.
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I'm in TSA Pre, but if I weren't, I would tie up an entire security line for half an hour under these rules. I typically travel with:
I'm sure I'm forgetting something. My entire bag is basically a solid block of electronics, all carefully packed, all of which fits in there in exactly one way, and would fill about five bins.
Why do I get the distinct feeling that they haven't thought this through. At all.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
. . . they searched for homemade bombs posing as electronic devices? Instead of electronic devices posing as homemade bombs? (Bob: "Look there's a homemade bomb in this purse!" Dave replies: "Nah! That's just a pocket calculator posing as a homemade bomb")
Examples:
LHR (London - Heathow) international terminals.
All electronics containing batteries including phones must be placed separate on a tray. Shoes off, belt off, wrist watch & any bracelets off. Coats off. Any spot shows up on the milimmeter wave machines - you get a pattin'. Soap bars or candles in your carry-on ? Baggage off the belt and onto the swab station.
OTP (Bucharest - Henri Coada).
Any solid object not resembling clothes in the carry-on luggage better be in a separate tray. Else you get all the carry-on contents unceremoniously dumped in multiple trays, rummaged through, asked about each one then ran through the X-Ray again. Any blunt object might be restricted to fly (had 2 stone statues a bit larger than a fist rejected as dangerous).
1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
Not to mention, in what airport in europe do they literally stick their hand in your underwear and stop just short from feeling your balls en penis?
I was transiting through Frankfurt a few weeks back on my first trip to Europe and had to do exactly this, which caught me by surprise since I had never heard of a policy like it before. I watched this one police officer's facial expression change from curiosity to mild horror to amusement at the absurdity of the situation as I pulled a laptop, two tablets, three handheld gaming systems, and a few other random electronics from my laptop bag alone. I imagine that to him it looked a bit like clowns getting out of a car at the circus.
To anyone behind me in line, I apologize.
Given the trend in phones, pretty soon there won't be electronic gear bigger than a mobile phone that still fits in the overhead bins. Problem solved. No more need for screening.
> amid growing fears that electronic devices can pose as homemade bombs.
Shouldn't TSA care more about homemade bombs that masquerade as electronics. If an electronic gadget wants to play make-believe, shouldn't that be covered by AI rights in future ... TSA trying to get in laws ahead of time?
>> It's not the security theater so much as the inefficiency that bothers everyone.
I respectfully disagree. It's the theater. I could forgive inefficiency if it were effective, but it's not. We're 15 years post-911, and the hands-in-bag screeners still don't get to see an image of what made the x-ray screener pull the bag.
Nail-clipper treasure hunts make us less safe because it trains agents to look for clippers. IMHO we need a lot more red team exercises, multiple per airport day, and a lot less nail-clipper policing. $0.02.
I remember when the 4th Amendment meant something
Then came the Cuban hijackings
And the SCOTUS said "Well, only a FEW SELECT people need to lose their rights"
Camel's nose?
More like Horse's Asses
Yeah, but this is America, the exceptional
The people WE kill aren't targetted, we just don't give a flying fcuk!
You know all TSA employee's are given a labodomy before being assigned where to work. All are basically brain dead
Every person that has had this happen has been brown. It's just an excuse to be more racist at the airports.
Let's also ignore the fact that monday all of Orlando International skipped the security checks dod not have to take laptop out of the bag, dont remove shoes or coat, just walk through.
Airport security is theater and an attempt to be racist to those that are not white.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
This is bullshit. I just traveled through several major airports in Europe and had in my backpack 2 tablets, 1 game console, several travel routers, power adapters and other electronic stuff. I never had to remove anything from the backpack.
I hadn't known there were so many idiots in the world until I started using the Internet -Stanislaw Lem
I flew into the UK through Heathrow last year, and didn't even see an x-ray machine.
No-one asked me to remove my belt or shoes either, so I don't know where that came from.
I did have to place my laptop into a tray for the x-ray machine in Melbourne earlier this year however. While I was waiting I heard an American ask one of the security guys if she needed to remove her shoes. He looked at her like she was drunk and said, "No, why would you do that"?
What the EU wants to do within the EU is what some nation in the EU wants to do.
Who is allowed to work in the EU and what they do is set by that nation or the EU.
EU has its privacy laws to consider and the free movement of people within the EU.
When a person finally exits the EU to the USA real security steps up.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Anthropomorphising. I'm fairly sure objects can't pose.
Retina scan, if it's an Apple.
If either the TSA or the US gov't were competent, they would have done this long ago (like 1/2 year ago).
Whether it is security theater or not, some international business travelers are already not going to the US and reorganizing event elsewhere in fear of business documents (laptop) being held at border.
They can improve it, but international business travelers already have the fear. The damage has been done. Good luck reversing it.
D'oh! I knew I forgot something in that list. Two camera bodies.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
I was about to buy a camera, but after hearing this news, forget it. Those bins are dirty as shit. What if the previous bin user had stepped in dog shit and put his shoes in your bin? Then you put your camera in there and now your camera has dog shit on it.
I hope they use a different fist to probe my electronics...
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
In the X-ray machine?
bickerdyke
That was me.
It wouldn't even take more personal for the checks as efficiency could be ramped up by travelers if they had the tools!
A few benches or chairs and tables to help dressing/undressing/packing/unpacking, Stackable bins and something on wheels to roll your stack of bins to the actual checkpoint would work magic!
bickerdyke
Heath row last week, iPads out, shoes off in my line. They stage the metal detectors and mm wave scanners so you might have to go through both.
Given the trend in phones, pretty soon there won't be electronic gear bigger than a mobile phone that still fits in the overhead bins.
Which measuring dimension are considering ?
Horizontal/Vertical width ? - Yeah pretty soon the huge plasma screen in your living room is going to be the only device bigger than a phone and that clearly can't be fit in your luggage.
Thickness/depth ? - Sorry man, soon even your cigarette rolling paper is going to be over the limit.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Actually I'm working on a couple of projects where they're replacing scanning machines with the latest & greatest (in the back-of-the-house baggage handling for checked luggage). They're actually installing fewer machines than the number they're replacing. The new machines have a much greater throughput, and, as an added bonus, have a higher false positive rate.
It depends from day to day and airport to airport. I had to take it out in Brussels, next time I didn't need to and after that I needed to.
I now just put the portable in a bin and have things next to it (like keys and wallet) but not on top of it. No issues since then.
It really depends on the mood of the person who works the line and how busy it is. If very busy, they are a bit easier. If not that busy, they are a bit stricter.
In Spain I had to put the portable in a separate basket each time. Airports where Santiago de Compostella and Avilles, so smaller airports with mainly national flights.
I only need to take out the portable, not the cables or anything else.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
If you really want to confuse them have an old metal chassis film SLR, some good lenses, a bunch of filters, bulb cable, extension tubes, a couple of telephoto converters, a big flash, a compact tripod, a light meter, and a bunch of film and then fit it all in one larger camera bag. When they open it up it is like a fucking clown car as they start taking things out and the effort they go through to claim that half of that stuff is a weapon is rather sad. I have learned to not fly with film in the camera as they frequently open the camera because they are rather stupid.
Time to offend someone
So you hold up the line for half an hour. They do not care. Their bosses might, so they need to hire more people. That will give some others a nice bonus.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
You are probably also white.
Try that trick while being brown and see what happens.
I wonder if this will help improve their dismal security record.
https://tech.slashdot.org/stor...
"Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America
Upside is, if you're an Apple device owner, your stuff is already shitty.
Why can't we go back to using jumpers to configure slot adapter cards? Why? I say!