What exactly is the purpose of these? Seems like almost every time I am about to board a flight to return to the US from an international airport, I get questioned by a contracted security member. They put a sticker with a date on it on the back of my passport after asking me a few random questions. I guess I get the point of these questions, but not so much what the sticker shows.

I never thought much about this until leaving Barcelona. Upon notifying me I had to answer a few basic questions, the agent kind of snickered and showed her colleague my passport with a good amount of ICTS stickers on the back. I am not sure if that was funny in a bad way, or she was impressed or what. It really doesn't bother me much, but I just find it interesting.

My thing is, I have a US Passport and Global Entry, and so when coming into the US I essentially walk right back into the country with essentially no question at all. Yet oversees they seem to be more preoccupied with questioning me. Honestly I really don't see the point in these at all, they are honestly just an inconvenience.

Can anyone shed any light on this? I haven't ever paid much attention to this until now. Are programs like this really necessary, or is it just the TSA overreaching to try and be "safe"?