Of Course This Was Coming. (Did You Think TSA's PreCheck Would Stop At Just Sticking A Finger In Your Personal Data?)
There's a story at The Hill by Thomas P. Bossert about where the TSA is going with PreCheck:
You know those PreCheck lanes at the airport that promise expedited screening? The TSA wants to fill them and it has come up with a troubling new twist on an old, contentious scheme to do it. While Congress and the rest of us were slipping out for the holidays, the TSA quietly published its intent to hire big data companies to solicit you for PreCheck enrollment, and seek your consent to mine your grocery receipts, your credit card purchases, and even your Facebook posts to determine if you are a terrorist risk - not just once but on an ongoing basis.The TSA's approach raises serious concerns about citizen privacy, and security...
...TSA hopes to not tell you what exactly their private sector contractors will collect or what they will use to determine your suitability for reduced screening. The government will remind you that the program is voluntary, rightly. But, how do we give informed consent? It is unknown what predictive factors will be used in the algorithm to determine whether a passenger is a threat.
Beware what you post on social media while you are enrolled in PreCheck - it is fair game, according to the TSA's request for proposals. It is also unclear whether the information collected by the agency's private sector contractors could be used for other government or private purposes. The type of information collected appears to be unlimited and the government will not say what these big data companies may or may not collect. Worse, if you are rejected by a private sector contractor, you may never know why.
The privacy and civil liberties implications alone are astounding. But, there is a more important issue. The TSA is gambling with the security of civil aviation and expanding its scope irresponsibly. The problem with computerized passenger profiling is that it simply does not work.
Frequent flyer miles might be a factor in the secret algorithm. However, Mohamed Atta, a ringleader and 9/11 hijacker, had a frequent-flyer gold card. Current members of the military are considered low risk by the TSA. Yet, Nidal Hasan, the convicted Fort Hood shooter, was a U.S. Army Major. Perhaps the algorithm will be programmed to trust doctors. Yet, the attempted 2007 car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow were planned and executed by doctors.
According to a recent report on Homeland Security News Wire, "about 40 percent of lone-wolf terrorists are driven by mental illness, not ideology."
If you voluntarily submit for a PreCheck background check and are green-lighted by the big data companies who have fed your discoverable personal data into their algorithms, you are promised quicker transit through airport security, dedicated faster moving lines, and you will not be asked to remove your belt, shoes, liquids and gels. If you do not, you are guaranteed the opposite. So, either these security measures--removal of belts, shoes, liquids and gels--are unnecessarily kept in place to drive passengers into the allure of PreCheck, or they are prudent flight security measures waived by the TSA because it is willing to gamble on the effectiveness of its prescreening. Either conclusion is unsettling.
Of course, the place to profile people is before they get to the airport, and the way to do that is using highly trained intelligence officers operating according to -- yes, that old Constitution thingie -- probable cause.
Last time I flew my boarding pass said I was prechek. I didn't ask for it. I didn't know what it was. I got in the regular line. When the TSA guy saw I was prechek he yelled at me and directed me to the appropriate line. There was maybe 4 people. I have no idea what I was supposed to do, so the TSA guy yells at me for not moving fast enough.
I admit on the return flight it was nice to speed through the line. Not sure I would py for the privilege or agree to being subjected to data mining.
Bill O Rights at January 22, 2015 12:23 PM
So what's their clever plan for when person "A" (no hope in hell of ever getting cleared) shows up with tickets saying they are person "B" (fully PreChecked) ?
kenmce at January 22, 2015 5:04 PM
Hmm, you're no fun. This is the TSA version of the velvet rope, the casting call. Only the cool kids get in. Who knows for sure why. And of course the cool kids go for it. Anything that separates them from the herd is a good thing. And of course that demographic is used to being marketed to, they love the ass-kissing that goes along with it.
"You're not PreChecked? Eww my Gawd"
Canvasback at January 22, 2015 6:13 PM
From my experience, Pre-check happens randomly. I fly 2-3 times per year with a companion. More than once one of us is randomly selected for Pre-check and the other is not. Since we are traveling together we stay together (primarily to keep an eye on each other's stuff going through the xray machine).
justme at January 22, 2015 7:43 PM
If you are a frequent flyer, you will sometimes get pre-check status randomly. I'm not sure what criteria applies, but those of us at work who have security clearances have noted that we get it nearly every time, so evidently the TSA has access to those records. I've applied for so many clearances and special accesses in the past that the government already has a finger up my ass anyway, so I take it as a perk of the job. But yes, in the larger scope, it's going to be a huge problem. Not just with the TSA either. Look at this way: if they can do it, figure that every government agency can do the same.
Cousin Dave at January 23, 2015 7:54 AM
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