TSA Records
Back in August, (“Demand Your records“) I mentioned the effort to request, under the Freedom of Information Act, records relating to the TSA’s illegal data grab on Americans. In December, I got a response, and share a redacted copy here. All redactions are mine. (The whole process of redaction is remarkably difficult, but that’s a separate post. Feel free to try to defeat my “scan a magic markered copy” technique.)
Since I redacted what I’m sharing, allow me to explain what I’m choosing not to share. The number starting:
- …218 is my Delta frequent flyer number.
- …617 is the phone number I tend to use for such things.
- …3823 is my Diner’s club card.
Some comments:
- I appreciate being addressed by our civil servants as “Dear Shostack.”
- I am utterly stymied by the 12/31/89 19:00:00 apparent date. I know why I might have called one year later, but not in 1989. John Gilmore pointed out that that’s localtime for midnight, GMT, in both Boston (where I was) and Atlanta (where Delta was, and mostly remains).
The records: tsa-redacted.PDF
[Update: Fixed spelling. Thanks Samablog!]
That’s twenty years forward from time(0) in EST. Perhaps it is the result of a null time value in an application that adds twenty to the year to dodge y2k problems on a component system.
So, for the benefit of those of us who don’t wish to think too hard this morning…
What does the info show? Looks vaguely like it might be a list of flights you have taken? Is it complete and/or accurate? Is it just Delta? You must have flown more often than that… I know I’ve seen you a good half dozen times in various places since 9/11/01.
Ryan,
There’s a single flight shown, Atlanta to Boston and back. The data set is in June of 2004. There’s a bunch of stuff I don’t understand in there. Which is sorta the point of posting the records, to 1) show whats there and 2) perhaps learn what some of it means. For example, someone has suggested that the “SM” marking might mean “special meals.”