
The TSA's FAST Personality Screening Program Violates the Fourth Amendment [pdf] - CapitalistCartr
http://www.aulawreview.org/pdfs/64/64.2/Rogers.Off.To.Website.pdf
======
rayiner
This is a note, written by a law student. Not a reason to discount the
analysis, per se, but worth keeping in mind if you were thinking of skipping
the article and taking the conclusion at face value.

The actual analysis starts at 367. The gist of the argument, from a quick
read, is that _Kyllo_ (the case that held that the government could not use
infrared cameras to look into peoples' homes) established that the government
could not use extrasensory searches to get information about what's inside
areas protected by the 4th amendment. To the extent that biological vitals and
medical information are protected (an uncontroversial point), it follows that
using extrasensory technology to obtain that information violates _Kyllo_.

~~~
panarky

      The system has an eighty-one percent classification accuracy
      in a laboratory test setting
    

That sounds pretty good -- "It catches 81% of the bad guys".

It sounds good until you realize that bad guys are an infinitesimal portion of
the population.

If bad guys are 1 in 1,000 or 1 in 100,000, virtually all of the people
implicated by the system will be innocent.

~~~
JadeNB
Specifically, since the numbers are pretty unbelieveable if you haven't seen
such arguments before: if the bad guys are as numerous as 1 in 1000, then the
number of false positives will be 999*19% > 189 in 1000. That is, if you are
identified as a bad guy, then the odds are worse than 1 in 190 (just over
0.5%) that you are one.

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guelo
FAST seems to be some kind of polygraph-type scanner using cameras. It's very
likely that it doesn't work but some military contractor will make millions
off of it anyway. Any efficacy data will probably be unavailable or
classified. Efficacy doesn't matter to the authorities anyway because having
people believe that their minds are being read is almost as good as actually
reading their minds.

~~~
EazyC
Are you sure things like this can't work? I work in a computational
neuroscience lab and we do a lot of modelling and also machine learning.
Things like Eulerian Video magnification (EVM) already prove you can do the
rudimentary proof of concepts of such "FAST scans" like being able to extract
heart rate and blood flow from a simple video. Techniques like EVM can even be
used to detect sound from video files simply based off vibration of the
objects captured in video. It seems it wouldn't be too outlandish to assume
that EVM techniques + some other more classified technologies + unlimited
funding of the NSA/Homeland Security/CIA/TSA could be combined to create
something like the tech purported in the link. For the record, I don't work in
the actual lab that developed EVM, just in a similar field.

EVM info:
[http://people.csail.mit.edu/mrub/vidmag/](http://people.csail.mit.edu/mrub/vidmag/)

[http://people.csail.mit.edu/mrub/VisualMic/](http://people.csail.mit.edu/mrub/VisualMic/)

~~~
jimktrains2
OK, so lets assume the cameras work. For the same reasons polygraphs have no
basis in science, nor would these. I fucking hate the TSA and am fucking
furious every time I have to wait to be sexually molested. I'm also worried
that they'll fuck up and I'll miss my flight. I'm nervous because I'm worried.
I'm constantly looking around to find out how many TSA agents are just fucking
around doing nothing.

Yet, I'm not a terrorist. And you know what? most people aren't terrorists.
The false positive rate so high it essentially makes the test meaningless and
unable to discern an actual threat.

~~~
hurin
The rather strong verbal comments aside - I think this is almost certainly
correct.

Polygraph tests are notoriously inaccurate - where as for something like
terrorist threats the number of real positives you are interested is probably
in the x > 1/10^6.

That's totally fantastic - consider that pregnancy tests have a false positive
rate in the single digits.

~~~
gknoy
The language is strong, but pretty much encapsulates the impotent anger I feel
even __thinking__ about interacting with the TSA. On the rare occasions when I
must, my anxiety and fears match very closely to the GP's post's language.

~~~
tajen
And this is why... I don't go to US. There has been two highly interesting
conferences in NY and one in SF (for which another founder offered to give me
his tickets for free). But I use a false name on Facebook, which is against my
contract with an american company, which is an impersonation, and I don't want
to risk it with a TSA agent.

~~~
hueving
Your reasoning is nonsensical. The TSA has nothing to do with enforcing
company contracts.

------
dang
Url changed from
[https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2015/03/the_tsas_fast...](https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2015/03/the_tsas_fast_p.html),
which points to this.

~~~
Crito
Have you considered making this (providing the original link after changing
it) a feature of HN itself?

I like the transparency, but doing it manually every time seems like it could
become a bit of a hassle for you.

~~~
robotkilla
doing it automatically wouldn't prohibit transparency.

~~~
jimktrains2
He meant he likes the mod posting it because it's transparent, but knows that
it's a pain for the mod and feels that having this automatically happen would
aid in being transparent because then the mods don't have to do special
things.

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logn
It seems to me that the law and precedent are used by courts much like the
Bible is by preachers. You can justify almost anything you want.

I read the whole paper (sans footnotes) and it makes a lot of sense. Had I not
also read the legal memo on extra-judicial assassinations, I'd be a lot more
confident that an average person could predict court decisions based on the
current body of law and precedent. But I think any decision can be reached, at
least in practical effect, considering the power to dismiss cases and exclude
evidence.

~~~
mdholloway
This is true, but only to a point. In principle, if the reasoning is flawed in
some obvious way (say, writing a memo on executive power during wartime
without citing Youngstown Steel, the leading case on the subject), other
people with requisite training will sooner or later recognize that, and the
error will be corrected.

Of course, this requires public scrutiny to work. Hence the problems with
secret legal memos and secret court opinions.

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skj
Let me begin by stating that I think the TSA, as implemented, is a huge waste
of money and time.

That said, I am not sure any searching done by the TSA can violate the 4th
amendment - you can always refuse a search if you're ok with being ejected
from the airport.

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hijiri
We are living in the cyberpunk future

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jostmey
Eerily similar to the concept in "psycho pass".

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jwcacces
Those footnotes are more like legnotes!

