
Security Check Now Starts Long Before You Fly - chaostheory
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/22/business/security-check-now-starts-long-before-you-fly.html?hp
======
jevinskie
> For instance, an update about the T.S.A.’s Transportation Security
> Enforcement Record System, which contains information about travelers
> accused of “violations or potential violations” of security regulations,
> warns that the records may be shared with “a debt collection agency for the
> purpose of debt collection.”

This is absurd. So now the government is snitching on citizens who are
traveling domestically.

~~~
malandrew
Wait, WTF does airport security have to do with debt collection?

~~~
dmix
What does 99.99-% of phone call records have to do with Terrorism/National
Security?

Mass data collection doesn't discriminate. These organizations are in the
business of collecting everything about you. "Debt collection" is just their
primary business.

For ex, most American pharmacies sell what prescriptions people are buying [1]
to data mining companies. But they at least "de-identify", due to federal
regulations. TSA operates outside quite a few laws/regulations protecting
individual rights. We can now add information privacy to that list.

[http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2011/06/pharmacies-selling-
presc...](http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2011/06/pharmacies-selling-prescription-
information-data-mining-companies.html)

~~~
atlanticus
Is that through credit card data? And how does that not violate HIPPA?

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JonSkeptic
>The T.S.A. has emphasized its goal of giving 25 percent of all passengers
lighter screening by the end of next year, meaning they can keep their shoes
and jackets on, wait in separate lines and leave laptop computers in their
bags. But travelers who find themselves in the higher-risk category can be
subjected to repeated searches.

So if we are good Citizens, we will be rewarded. Only bad Citizens have
something to hide and they will be molested for it.

Somehow this does not comfort me at all.

~~~
malandrew
Worse yet, I was under the impression that only citizens that have been
arrested and fingerprinted had their fingerprints on file. Now with this, they
are creating a reason to get a completely law-abiding citizen's fingerprint on
file. We've been successful in avoiding a national ID system, but it looks
like one is now being implemented via the TSA under the guise of a
"convenience program" that you are coerced into participating in by
increasingly making your live a living hell if you don't.

It would be valuable to bring something like this to the attention of the NRA,
because they are one of the few groups that does a lot of work to prevent a
national ID program and centralized databases of biometric markers.

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auctiontheory
So many cold-war era US criticisms of the Soviet bloc are coming true in this
country, except that the surveillance here is more effective than what we saw
in _The Lives of Others_.

~~~
MrZongle2
"Papers, please" has been replaced with "Wait while we review our database
containing your personal information".

This is the road to a police state.

~~~
fijal
That does not make the "papers please" part disappear btw. Last time I
checked, the queues were long anyway.

~~~
jessaustin
"Papers please" will disappear as they gradually roll out the bar code
tattoos. Starting next year.

------
EGreg
What baffles me is how come the subway system has never seen major terrorist
attacks despite having very low security and carrying millions of New Yorkers
(or citizens of other cities) a day.

I am very thankful for this, but wondering why. If someone wanted to cause a
massive amount of damage it would not be difficult to do.

~~~
PilateDeGuerre
Perhaps terrorism isn't quite the threat to us that the US state makes it out
to be.

~~~
frank_boyd
It increasingly looks like the "ruling 1%" are preparing for social unrest,
respectively for the protection of their power and wealth which will be
questioned.

~~~
malandrew
This is the feeling I increasingly get with all this. If this turns out to be
the case, I can only imagine that this works for a while until those doing the
enforcing realize that they have more in common with the 99% and then turn on
the 1%.

~~~
frank_boyd
And that's where the increasing economic pressure comes in:

Keep the minimum wage inhumanely low, keep talking about the "american dream"
and how everybody is just a temporarily embarrassed millionaire [0] and watch
people keeping their mouths shut.

[0]
[http://www.temporarilyembarrassedmillionaires.org/](http://www.temporarilyembarrassedmillionaires.org/)

------
gohrt
The patriot thing to do is to opt in to all the physically invasive screenings
and opt out of all the data collection.

The more time spent on searching you at the airport, the more everyone else is
delayed (shared sacrifice) and the more visible these security theatrics are.

------
ape4
Of course, when they scan your passport (drivers license) into their computer
at the security desk they are looking you up. That data was gathered before
you arrived at the airport.

------
thex86
Question for the Americans: what is still keeping the TSA in business, even in
spite of all these draconian practices? Why can't someone fight the TSA in
SCOTUS?

Things like this make me really glad to be living in Canada. At least there is
_some_ \- if not a lot - expectation of privacy and protection against
unreasonable search and seizure.

~~~
refurb
What makes you think Canada isn't working hand-in-hand with the TSA?

As we've seen over the past couple of months, the only difference between the
US and rest of Europe is that the US intelligence system is on the front page
of the news right now. Everyone else is doing similar stuff, just not in the
spotlight.

------
znowi
> Privacy groups contacted by The New York Times expressed concern over the
> security agency’s widening reach

At this rate of government's lust for control and power, it is time to express
_outrage_ already.

I'll enjoy watching when they introduce random body cavity search at the
airports. By that time, people will be conditioned enough to comply. After
all, it's for our own protection.

~~~
jessaustin
_I 'll enjoy watching..._

Rule 34?

------
frank_boyd
Police State v1.0

~~~
angersock
Please don't make this sort of comment without more useful things to say.

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contextual
The US government is racist. It's as simple as that. And their fixation with
people who look of Arab descent is only going to get worse as citizens shrug
their shoulders in resignation and accept that too[1].

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shifting_baseline](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shifting_baseline)

------
EGreg
I am not worried about it. People care about security and don't welcome the
hassle. For the privacy advocates when it comes to public transportation like
flying: what do you fear may happen as a result of greater background checks?

This article reminded me of this one from 3 years ago:
[http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/why_israeli_airport_securit...](http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/why_israeli_airport_security_wont_work_in_usa/)

(PS: I predict this comment will be heavily voted down just because people
disagree with me, and I want to see whether HN users on aggregate punish
opposing views or reward a willingness to reasonably discuss something.)

However, the below doesn't make much sense together:

 _" The prescreening, some of which is already taking place, is described in
documents the T.S.A. released to comply with government regulations about the
collection and use of individuals’ data, but the details of the program have
not been publicly announced.

It is unclear precisely what information the agency is relying upon to make
these risk assessments."_

So what is the regulation about disclosing collection of info, if it's still
unclear after disclosure what information they are using?

~~~
angersock
Fuck it, let's just argue the other way and save some time.

What evidence is there that we should ignore the well-known design principles
of encapsulation and separation-of-concerns and thus allow the TSA to access
data held by other agencies?

~~~
jamesaguilar
Those are programming design principles, not security principles nor natural
laws. It does not do to assume that principles in one domain carry over to
other domains.

~~~
angersock
They are system-design principles, and one can consider that the TSA folks are
Turing Complete, therefore the laws apply. Q.E.D.

Don't assume that they don't carry.

~~~
jamesaguilar
So, since the body is also likely turing complete via DNA, can I assume that
DRY applies and preemptively remove one of your lungs? Give me a break.

~~~
mdc
Do you really believe that DRY in coding precludes redundancy in
implementation?

~~~
jamesaguilar
It tends to forbid code duplication, which is what the lungs are. Redundant
implementations are two implementations which work a different way, which no,
are not forbidden by DRY.

~~~
dragonwriter
> It tends to forbid code duplication, which is what the lungs are.

Lungs are not code duplication any more than running two instances of an
application to provide greater peak performance or hot-standby is code
duplication. You are confusing duplication of _elements of the real system_
with duplication of _specification_ (programming is executable specification,
_not_ the real system.)

~~~
jamesaguilar
I concede this point.

