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TSA following Trusted Travelers' internet usage?

TSA following Trusted Travelers' internet usage?

Old Mar 15, 2014, 9:15 pm
  #16  
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Originally Posted by CZBB
Lots of people are forced to get Trusted Traveller Status in order to avoid massive delays in getting anything done in the USA. I'm a NEXUS member, which has a very invasive questionnaire/interview by two governments, and I did it in order to avoid the almost guaranteed hour+ long lineups to enter the USA. Even with NEXUS it took me 34 minutes of lineup to enter the USA last weekend.

After a couple of 2-3+ hour border lineups to enter the USA you just give up and get something like NEXUS.

Only one country has ever made me wait more than an hour to enter, and that's the USA; and on more occasions than I can remember. It really is the biggest pain the ... border I've ever crossed.
You're not forced to do anything. With those kinds of waits, I'd recommend traveling (and spending) elsewhere, rather than continue to condone such unnecessary idiocy.
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Old Mar 15, 2014, 10:48 pm
  #17  
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Originally Posted by Schmurrr
If TSA proceeds with this, it is a disgusting development in itself as well as a big middle finger to the people who have been expressing concern about mass surveillance and other forms of government overreach. Federal government actors have obviously chosen to ignore the concerns that are being expressed by the public.
At least three kinds of outcomes related to the TSA rely upon persons' data collected by other parts of the government, other governments and contractors/contracted-counterparties to governments and/or airlines. The TSA largely is a tool and client of those other parts/parties' information and very often have no clue about "why" those flags/outcomes are hitting a given person. Some of the "why" has to do with internet habits monitored not by the TSA but monitored by others. In some cases, the monitoring or the flagging/outcomes are even used to try to blackmail people to act in ways -- lawful or not -- which they would otherwise not do.
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Old Mar 16, 2014, 1:31 am
  #18  
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Originally Posted by GUWonder
If I had to bet, I'd bet that you clear today. That might change in the future if/when it's considered more publicly acceptable for the government to administratively punish way more people on the basis of "secret" criteria that includes supposed reading and discussion "behavior"/"habits". We are not there yet, but you can bet that the crowd that tells others to get over "privacy hang ups" is counting on it happening and wants it to happen.
^

We are on a dangerous path...
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Old Mar 16, 2014, 4:41 am
  #19  
 
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Originally Posted by javabytes
^

We are on a dangerous path...
I suggest that we are no longer on that path but have reached our destination. We are in the process of exploring and discovering that new place.

If I have ever been wrong about anything, and I have, I hope this is another.
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Old Mar 16, 2014, 2:41 pm
  #20  
 
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Did Lockheed Martin's contract to train the TSA finally run out?
The original plus 4 option years should have ended and I cannot find the new company on FedBizOps.

I have a reason for asking related to the OP but wanted to confirm if LM was still involved.
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Old Mar 19, 2014, 6:00 pm
  #21  
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Originally Posted by FredAnderssen
I for one am considering closing down my Flyertalk profile, starting a new one with a false name, and posting only after going through a couple of proxies.
Too late. All your old posts are already indexed by Gooble and the No Such Agency. If you suddenly drop off the radar, it will only make you more of a suspect, as in "What do you suddenly have to hide?" Did you recently convert into an Ebil Tewwowist? Paranoid government agents reallty want to know. Just practice repeating "I Love Big Brother."
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Old Mar 20, 2014, 2:00 pm
  #22  
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I don't think the real monitoring will end until we get through this nasty war with Eastasia.

Mike
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Old Mar 20, 2014, 3:57 pm
  #23  
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Originally Posted by mikeef
I don't think the real monitoring will end until we get through this nasty war with Eastasia.
Every American child under the age of 11 can truthfully say "We Have Always Been at War in Mideastasia."
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Old Mar 23, 2014, 10:15 pm
  #24  
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You set up 2 email accts. One acct is for communicating with TSA, the other (which you don't divulge to TSA) is for all other communications.
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Old Mar 25, 2014, 7:55 am
  #25  
 
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I will never be a Trusted Traveler now: One of the graders for my final assignment in an on-line course on terrorism and counterterrorism commented that my essay on al-Shabaab was so on point that I must know people who are linked to al-Shabaab! After an initial O.O, I found it to be highly amusing. I think the grader's native language was not English and he/she was trying to be complimentary.

One of the people I related this story to said I need to be more careful about what I say on-line. I replied that, no, I need to say on-line exactly what I would have said prior to the revelations about mass surveillance. To censor myself is to accept an unjust restriction on my 1st Amendment rights. I run the sad risk of some TSA type deciding that I should be scrutinized "out of an abundance of caution" because of something I said on-line, but I will take that chance and I will not be silent about it.
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Old Mar 25, 2014, 8:49 am
  #26  
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Originally Posted by Schmurrr
I will never be a Trusted Traveler now: One of the graders for my final assignment in an on-line course on terrorism and counterterrorism commented that my essay on al-Shabaab was so on point that I must know people who are linked to al-Shabaab! After an initial O.O, I found it to be highly amusing. I think the grader's native language was not English and he/she was trying to be complimentary.

One of the people I related this story to said I need to be more careful about what I say on-line. I replied that, no, I need to say on-line exactly what I would have said prior to the revelations about mass surveillance. To censor myself is to accept an unjust restriction on my 1st Amendment rights. I run the sad risk of some TSA type deciding that I should be scrutinized "out of an abundance of caution" because of something I said on-line, but I will take that chance and I will not be silent about it.
I'm still a government-'trusted traveler" -- despite the suspicions and shenanigans of others -- trusted by some of the very governments whose actions I care to cover and critique from time to time (despite being subjected to their jurisdiction and not painting the official picture the way some "nationalists" may want).

I'm no fan of "trusted traveler" programs that allow for the government to administratively make some/many free citizens into second class citizens, even as I'm still generally considered a first class citizen despite some shenanigans by some others. I'll be given the perks without taking on any sense of the obligations of these scam programs which I will continue to criticize as administrative gimmickry.

Last edited by GUWonder; Mar 25, 2014 at 8:57 am
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Old Jul 23, 2016, 2:58 am
  #27  
 
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Unhappy

Originally Posted by Spiff
I still don't know why anyone would give into blackmail and sign up for such a program.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I did sign up for NEXUS. I had misgivings about it, but in the end, pragmatic considerations won out over principles.
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