Originally Posted by
divemistressofthedark
+1. And I should add I'm what many people here in TS/S would believe to be a liberal, "socialist" type.
...
- I don't trust TSA to safeguard this information. This is an agency that's proven time and again it can't be trusted, and it can't even ferret out the problem of petty larceny among its staff people. So now we're going to give away even more of the candy store?
- Crafting a massive database trove of valuable information will present an almost irresistible temptation to some Fed to misuse it. How'd you like your entire credit history & background to be provided to some corporation b/c they made a giant campaign contribution to Candidate X? I'd bet any amount of money that will happen if this goes through.
- I've had problems in the past with not agreeing with my government 100% of the time. Can I be sure that government won't use its database to find and persecute people they don't want making a fuss...over issues like its tendency to trample the civil rights of its citizens?
- (Various other practical considerations)...etc.
To me, this is an unconscionable expansion of a police-state-like mentality, being imposed under the flimsiest of rationales. You're 100 times more likely to be hit by lightning than to die in terrorist incident. I just don't see the point.
From the opposite end of the political spectrum, I agree with you 100% on this. I don't believe for a minute that TSA/DHS's interest in credit history will be as superficial as how long someone has had a credit card. It will be too tempting to see where you spend your money. Donations to political parties? Donations to the ACLU or a tea party group? Donations to the Cannabis Defense Coalition, even if it's for Phil's defense fund? (Or perhaps,
especially if it's for Phil's defense fund?)
There's just no way an organization as paranoid and risk-averse as TSA will settle for something as simple as "had a credit card for 5 years."
The other thing that worries me about this (I'm up to six things, I think
) is that if TSA approaches this like they have everything else, I can foresee people submitting their credit records, tax returns, life history, whatever, and then being rejected by the TSA without any reason given. "Sorry, ma'am, you've been turned down for trusted traveler but we can't tell you why. SSI, you know. But please feel free to try again (with the non-refundable application fee) in six months' time." Now they've got all your data and you've got nothing.
People get put on the No Fly list without being told why (or even told that they're on it). I can't see that the Can Fly list will be any different.
