TSA's Pre-Check: The Dog Biscuit Being Offered You To Give Up Your Privacy
I'm dumbfounded by the naivete of those crowing about how great the TSA's Pre-Check is. Yes, they're glad as anything to pay $85 to not have their constitutional rights violated (and their genitals violated in the process) simply because they're guilty of wanting to fly to see grandma.
Christopher Elliott makes some excellent points:
You might think twice before plunking down the $85 that a five-year Pre-Check membership is expected to cost. Privacy advocates and some consumers are uneasy about government trusted-traveler programs like this one. There's no guarantee that you'll be approved, and if you aren't, you may never know why. And Pre-Check status is no guarantee that you can avoid a standard TSA screening, which includes a full-body scan or a so-called "enhanced" pat-down."If you sign up, you'll want to keep your nose clean for the rest of your life," says Gregory Nojeim, a director at the Center for Democracy & Technology. "Because that's how long the FBI will keep your fingerprints."
True, as part of the application process, TSA collects a cache of personal information about you, including your prints. They're held in a database for 75 years, and the database is queried by the FBI and state and local law enforcement as needed to solve crimes at which fingerprints are lifted from crime scenes, according to Nojeim. The prints may also be used for background checks.
"What started as a criminal database to link arrestees to other crimes is being turned into an all-purpose database of fingerprint identifiers," Nojeim says.
It isn't what Pre-Check is now -- we don't really know that yet -- but what it could someday become that worries privacy-watchers. In the future, it isn't too difficult to imagine a faster line for pre-screened train passengers waiting to board. TSA's roaming Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) teams already selectively screen Amtrak passengers and attendees at special events such as NFL games and political conventions. It also wouldn't be much of a stretch to see the program requiring passengers to be pre-approved before they can fly.
"I would not apply for one of these trusted-traveler programs, which in the past have involved giving the government more information or authorizing it to get more information about me," says Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization that advocates on privacy issues.
The concept of a line for elite travelers who can afford to pay a fee also strikes many observers as unfair, if not un-American. Critics say that, in the interests of safety, all travelers should be given the same careful screening whenever they fly.
Let's be real. With unskilled workers who otherwise would have been working at Cinnabon doing the screening, this isn't in the "interests of safety."
As I've said, the TSA is not about security; it's about making us docile in the fact of having our rights taken from us. Making that normal.
We should all have big, big problems with that.
Yes, you can board a flight for which you have neither a ticket nor a boarding pass.
Any nine year old can.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at October 7, 2013 12:11 AM
Yes, you can board a flight for which you have neither a ticket nor a boarding pass.
Any nine year old can.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at October 7, 2013 12:14 AM
Repeated posts are the responsibility of the Department of Redundancy Department.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at October 7, 2013 12:15 AM
Another thread win for Gog! Spanks for the link; I read about this kid. If there is ANY proof that the TSA needs to be disbanded, like right NOW, this is it.
The TSA has never been, nor will it ever be, pro-active in catching anything but a cold. It is and has been only RE-active, and not in any way that has been beneficial to the American public.
Flynne at October 7, 2013 5:46 AM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2013/10/tsas-pre-check-1.html#comment-3961586">comment from FlynneClearly, those "layers" of "security" staffed by repurposed Cinnabon workers make all the difference in the world.
Amy Alkon
at October 7, 2013 5:46 AM
I'd rather have a gooey cinnamon roll, carbs notwithstanding.
Old RPM Daddy (OldRPMDaddy at GMail dot com) at October 7, 2013 6:27 AM
Is Cinnabon really that hard up for help?
Rex Little at October 7, 2013 9:48 AM
More TSA stupidity. I especially like the quote from TSA about the family's experience:
“We regret that the family did not have a positive screening experience. We strongly encourage passengers with medical conditions to arrive at the checkpoint with ample time for screening. We are committed to maintaining the security of the traveling public and strive to treat all passengers with dignity and respect.”
http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/tsa-harasses-sick-kid--family-misses-flight-154956391.html
sara at October 7, 2013 3:32 PM
That is totally disgusting.
Jim P. at October 7, 2013 7:09 PM
For all you regular readers of the Goddess' blog you can skip past this post. I'm going to post my regular rant about not needing the TSA. For all you new readers, please read it carefully and refute any statement or misstatement. ;-)
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The TSA was not needed one hour and one minute after Tower II was hit!
The paradigm, the norm, the expected, what everyone was taught to do was to sit down, shut up and wait for the plane to land and the negotiations happen. That was the model from before Entebbe and afterward.
The passengers on board did not really know what was about to happen on September 11, 2001 at 8:46:30 when Flight 11 struck Tower I.
Even the passengers on Flight 175 probably didn't realize what was about to happen when they struck Tower II at 9:03:02.
The Pentagon crash of Flight 77 at 9:37:46 may have been still a matter of ignorance.
At 10:03:11 on September 11, 2001, United Airlines Flight 93 crashed after the brave souls counter-attacked and caused the hijackers to crash the plane.
The time difference is 60 minutes and 9 seconds from Tower II being struck to the crash of Flight 93. The shoe bomber and panty bomber were taken down by fellow passengers as well. Recently, JetBlue's Flight 191 pilot was taken down by the passengers once he was out of the cockpit. Additionally how many times have you heard of passengers' concerns and diverted flights?
The TSA is and has always been a joke, no make that a total stupidity, that has wasted our country's fortune going down a rabbit hole.
If you don't believe me look at the 9/11 timeline.
There will never be another 9/11 style attack unless the attackers can arrange planes full of geriatrics, and even then it would be doubtful.
Oh, and someone brought bombs being an issue. If bombs were effective and simple then the Lockerbie bombing would have been repeated multiple times between 21 December 1988 and 11 September 2001. That's 4647 days or 13 years. Where was the TSA in that time? There was one successful bombing that was done in Colombia and two unsuccessful attempts in that time. The bombing in Colombia was a drug dealer assassination and not a terrorist attack.
Basically the normal was used in an abnormal way. Once it was realized it was countered.
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I have repeatedly posted this here and on my blog. About the closest refutation has been adding a paragraph about bombs. No one has ever replied on my website or here that I'm wrong, or even a decent dialog on why I'm wrong. I would love to hear it.
Jim P. at October 7, 2013 7:16 PM
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