TresSugar

TSA Puts ID-less Travelers on Terrorist Watch List?

LibertySugar — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:15:23 -0700

Recently domestic airline passenger Sherri Davidoff wrote about her experience boarding an airplane without ID. Security required only basic information before Sherri could board the plane: she provided her name and the street and a state where she had lived previously. Sherri later said that she probably could have skipped even that much questioning by printing two boarding passes at home, and tossing the first one marked for further screening.

Sherri may have arrived at her destination, but the Transportation Security Administration has not forgotten that she showed up ID-less. The TSA has been adding ill-prepared passengers to their database of individuals who have violated security laws or were questioned for suspicious behavior. To see why the TSA wants to keep all the info on hand, read more.

The head of the TSA said keeping a list of those who say they left their identification at home helps the TSA track potential terrorists who might probe the system for cracks. Starting today, the TSA will only keep information for individuals that were unable to be sufficiently identified upon further questioning.

For 15 years, the same database retains the name, address, social security number, nationality, race, physical features, and information about traveling partners for those simply questioned by police for suspicious behavior. Last week the TSA misplaced a laptop that contained unencrypted identification data for 33,000 people. Could keeping databases of extensive identification information actually make us less safe?

Source

TSA Loses Laptop Containing All Data in Clear-to-Fly Program

CitizenSugar — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:45:55 -0700

The Transportation "Security" Administration might have to rethink its name after it misplaced a laptop containing all of the unencrypted data from 33,000 people who've enrolled in the TSA Clear program for over a week. The info in question includes names and passport, driver's license, and green card numbers - you know, the important stuff.

The laptop belonged to the private company Verified Identity Pass, which runs the program that allows passengers to pay a fee and register to clear security faster in 17 different states. The computer went missing on July 26, but the TSA wasn't notified until Sunday. All of the applicants have to be notified of the security breach. Obviously. The laptop has now been mysteriously recovered, hidden in a "not obvious" location. An investigation is underway as to whether the laptop was stolen and returned, or just misplaced.

Though they might have lost track of that data, they found a whole new (and personal) place to search. To see where, read more.

Meanwhile, the TSA has been given the new power to poke around in our laptops during screening. The grab-the-computer policy has been in place for a while, but they've only just disclosed it officially under pressure from civil liberties groups. TSA can peek through cell phones, iPods, pagers, and hard drives to their hearts' content. Maybe they'll find the data they misplaced?

Have you enrolled in this program? Does the missing info say anything about TSA's ability to keep us safe?

Source

A Playmobil "Security Check Point"? Is This For Real?

CitizenSugar — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 07:00:36 -0700

Okay, I stumbled across this and I'm still rubbing my eyes and trying to figure out if it's real. A Playmobil airport security check point set? Complete with potentially-violating metal-detecting wand, and about-to-be-searched wheelie-bag? But the big question is: are the teeny-tiny shoes removable? They might be a choking hazard. . . .

In all seriousness, I was at SFO once and TSA did a drill while I was in the security area - there was yelling, flashing lights, terrifying commotion - but darned if those good folks didn't get in their positions and seal off that area, lickity-split. I couldn't be more glad we have them keeping us safe - but is it a toy? Really?

*Long line sold separately.

Airport Security: They Get to See You Naked!

TresSugar — Tue, 19 May 2009 08:30:00 -0700

Did you think taking off your belt, shoes, and sometimes dignity at airport security was the end of it? Think again. It turns out that due to a newish technology, airport security can basically see images of you naked.

Privacy advocates are attempting to stop the US Department of Homeland Security from using whole-body imaging, a technology that is being used now in 19 airports and which displays a blurry but distinctly naked image of a passenger's body with the face blurred out.

The machines "detect both metallic and nonmetallic threat items to keep passengers safe," according to a spokesperson for the Transportation Security Administration, and some say the machines speed up the otherwise annoying and time-consuming process of metal detectors or pat-downs. To find out what privacy advocates are up in arms about, and to watch a demo of whole body imaging in a video, read more

Privacy advocates, from the ACLU to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, say that although the person working the machine never sees the image, and the person looking at the image never sees the passenger (they're in a remote location), there are larger concerns.

Where are the legal disclosures? What if TSA changes their policies down the road? The computer doesn't store the images, but what if that changes later? The machines are being used now in some courthouses in the US, and opponents claim that it's only a matter of time they show up in mundane spaces like malls.

According to one ACLU lawyer, "A choice between being groped and being stripped, I don't think we should pretend those are the only choices. People shouldn't be humiliated by their government."

Has surveillance gotten out of hand? Do you feel safer, or think technologies like whole-body imaging are worth it?