Airport Security of the future.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44149385/ns/travel-news/

Quote at the end of the article: “All these measures seem extreme. However, after we declared a war on terror, we must be more proactive than reactive when it comes to airport security.”

While it isnt the TSA that makes the quote (it was by a non profit consulting group in MD), it seems to go against what the TSA actually does. It seems all we hear about from the TSA is a reactive posture to a past threat, i.e., shoe bomber caught = removal of shoes; threat of liquid bomb coming from England = limits to 3.4 oz/100 ml; underwear bomber = more gropes and the NoS machines.

Those are definitely interesting machines, shown in the images.

An important line is “The future of transportation security will be gathering intelligence technologically while people are moving at the speed of life, not beginning at a point where passengers are queued up, delayed, stripped down and probed,” which touches upon on something Israeli security experts have long said: "If you didn't manage to nap the terrorist during the months of planning, and he's managed to evade you this long without you even knowing, what makes you think ma and pa TSOs will pick him up at airport security?"

Security shouldn't start at the airport. If it does, you've failed.

Within 30 years, biometric fingerprinting will give way to passports laced with computer chips. Your official travel document “will not only have information as to who you are and where you have traveled, but it will also ... allow government officials to track your travel not only in the air, but your daily travels to work, grocery stores and social events.”

One criterion that qualifies you as a Senior Policy Analyst at the Center for Health and Homeland Security is apparently being a moron. I wonder if they recruit TSO, since the vast majority would automatically qualify.

The only key criterion is either a complete ignorance or even an open disdain of the Constitution.

Mr. Herron was the Director of the Prince George's County Office of Homeland Security. According to a report, his disregard for civil rights was in full effect in that role, with three stated examples during one month:

1.Three individuals were shot and killed by police officers.

2.The police and sheriff's departments conducted a police-state type storm-trooper raid on the home of Berwyn Heights Mayor Calvo and slaughtered his dogs

3.Ronnie L. White died under suspicious circumstances in the county jail, which, like the police department, is under Mr. Herron.


(source: http://pg-politics.blogspot.com/2008...ron-again.html)

There is already discussed the thread before.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...nt-future.html

Mods, please locked the thread for me. Thanks!

I think we have to accept that in the future the gov't will have access to all of this information about us, like it or not, and attempting to subvert that isn't going to be successful. The important things are:

1. To make sure it is protected and that nobody (within the gov't or outside) not cleared to access it may do so.

2. Have EXTREMELY strict rules as to what purposes the information may be used for. As an example, if someone is documenting my travel patterns and digging for information to determine whether I am a threat to aviation safety and security, letting the DEA know I travel to Colombia monthly and always come home with an extra suitcase would be strictly prohibited. As technology develops, we will continue to develop our informational reach (however we justify it, it's because we simply can't help ourselves) and the most important thing is to have limits in what we're allowed to do with the results.

If we are willing to accept it then it is guaranteed to happen. Last time I checked, this was still nominally a free country with elected leadership.

Subverting it is possible. Throw away loyalty cards. Pay with cash. Don't use Facebook. Develop an aversion to giving out any identifying information in any situation not required by law. Stuff like that.

Of course, most people won't subvert it because complying with the data collection is too convenient and too fun.

The travel checkpoint of the future will also include a cavity search as soon as somebody sneaks something aboard hidden inside a vagina or rectum, that is, unless the people get off the collective couch and demand their rights be restored. Anybody who doesn't want to get fingered at the airport better wake up damn soon.

On the plus side, the frequent flyer of the future will no longer need an OB/GYN.

But my whole point is that the technology that enables the gathering of that information is such an integral part of our daily lives: credit cards, smart phones, even websites like this. In order to make use of many of life's conveniences we've generally accepted the risk of having more and more information out there. It's what happens to that information that is important, IMO.

And there is a HUGE difference between acknowledging/accepting that information you put out there (somewhere) yourself will eventually make it onto Uncle Sam's hard drive and submitting to a cavity search at the airport. One door has been opened by the increasing reliance and use of technology by society as a whole, the other shouldn't be opened at all (unless you are a proctologist).

That technology is still a choice. People can choose to ditch the cards for the transactions that tell people something about them, while keeping them for the stuff that doesn't (utilities, airline tickets, etc). People can avoid joining the privacy-killing smartphone cult. Website accounts can be set up with throwaway, one-time-use email addresses, never crosslinked, and never associated with anything else online or offline.

If people choose to play the game for fun or convenience then they have to live with being a number and a database entry. They'll be tracked and profiled their whole life, whether they like it or not, by anyone willing to buy their data.

We're living in an age where clowns like Zuckerberg and Page have convinced people that destroying virtually every last shred of privacy is actually a feature, instead of a bug.

We got here by choice, not at the point of a gun. If people choose to stop feeding the beast then it starves, whether we're talking about the datamining industry, the airlines, or anything else which requires our consent.

If everybody tells grocery store loyalty cards to go to hell then nobody loses their privacy and we all get the convenience of always low prices with no hassles.

If everybody refuses to participate in the security theater then the airlines go broke and the smurfs are out of a job.

If people choose to continue acting like cattle then they have nobody to blame but themselves when they're treated like cattle, numbered ear tags and all.

I would love to see a checkpoint machine similar to the one in Total Recall.