Originally Posted by
RadioGirl
See, if it reaches the point where 80% or 90% of passengers are "trusted travellers", then by definition the remaining 20% or 10% are "untrusted" or "suspicious" travellers and will get extra scrutiny at the checkpoint. The attitude of TSA is then likely to be "well, it's your own fault that you didn't apply for the PreCheck program." Or worse, "there must be something wrong with you if you didn't apply." But if entire categories of people - non-US citizens/residents, infrequent or last minute flyers - cannot apply, that continues to create a two-class system where these groups are systematically discriminated against by a US government agency.
Stating differently, TSA will continue to presume people guilty until proven innocent except that there will be an option to "prove" yourself innocent by becoming a "trusted traveler".
I imagine at some point everyone who is eligible to do so will hand their privacy over in exchange for a reduced (but not completely eleiminated) probability of being pawed or ogled, which tells me that this whole thing is another social engineering experiment by Big Sis.