Secondary Screening
Ryan Singel has a great post on the watch lists, and the keystone-cops fumbling behind the scenes.
Read More Secondary ScreeningAir Travel
Why Is Air Travel So Cheap?
The cost of last minute ticket doesn’t seem to be enough for airlines to break even. How much of this is due to a lingering fear of flying? How much of it is the extra cost to travelers, in inconvenience and hassle, of being bit players on the security stage? As long as a carrier…
Read More Why Is Air Travel So Cheap?"TSA cannot be trusted"
Writes Bill Scannell in a piece for USA Today. Not new, but a good intro as to why.
Read More "TSA cannot be trusted"Airport Screening Still Fails Tests
Do current security plans depend on no guns getting onto the planes? I hope not. Covert government tests last November showed that screeners were still missing some knives, guns and explosives carried through airport checkpoints, and the reasons involve equipment, training, procedures and management, according to a report by the inspector general of the Homeland…
Read More Airport Screening Still Fails TestsAcceptable ID
Virginia Postrel writes about flying without ID: Coming home today from New York, I was a little more prepared. I still didn’t have “government-issued i.d.,” but at least I knew I was headed for trouble. I got to JFK several hours early. The young security guard wasn’t sure what to do with me and asked…
Read More Acceptable IDTesting Airline Data for …what?
The New York Times reports that “The Transportation Security Administration said Tuesday that it planned to require all airlines to turn over records on every passenger carried domestically in June, so the agency could test a new system to match passenger names against lists of known or suspected terrorists.” The data will vary by airline.…
Read More Testing Airline Data for …what?CAPPS as Corporate Welfare
I’ve written in the past about how government-validated ID acts as a subsidy to privacy invasion. In the absence of such a card, I can give you whatever name I want, protecting my privacy. With such a card, it becomes easy to invade people’s privacy. Under CAPPS-2, the government would like the airlines to collect…
Read More CAPPS as Corporate WelfareTesting Airline Customers
Ed Hasbrouck has another pair of good posts (1, 2) on the “Free Wheelchairs” program. In the first one, he quotes from “Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2005”, H.R. 4567: (2) the underlying error rate of the government and private data bases that will be used both to establish identity and assign a risk…
Read More Testing Airline CustomersFree gropes for travellers
Over at BoingBoing, Cory points to a USA Today story at NewsIsFree about more screening. There seem to be four components: Explosives Detection Secondary screening will now always include nitrate detection swabbing. This is a fine step, but why has it taken 3 years to come in? (In fact, every time I’ve been thrown into…
Read More Free gropes for travellers