SSSS is gone
 

For the most part and with little fanfare the SSSS system is gone.

Are you serious? Is there a link to it?

Not... exactly. But for the most part.

We haven't had a selectee in HSV on the evening shift for about a week or so now. It's been nice.

No, the SSSS thing isn't entirely 100% completely gone, but it's parameters have been changed considerably. I'm not... really certain exactly how much is truly really safe to talk about without being disappeared, though, so I'm not going to get into the specifics of what, exactly, those changes are.

So, no, it's not 100% gone, but it's about 90% gone.

This is an anonymous Internet message board - unless you've identified yourself in some way to link your screen name to your real identity, you have nothing to fear about posting the details here.

If you or another TSA person wants to get the specifics out (we'll find out eventually anyway), PM me and I will gladly post any real or alleged SSI under my own screen name.

Yeah, already out on that count~ I work at HSV, I work as a TSO, and my name is Dean. Really narrows it down, there :P One time, when The Training Dude here in HSV went to DC on some kind of training trip, he got asked about me once the person he was talking to learned he was from Huntsville. Mostly it was a "So is HSVTSO Dean real?"

Another time, I was working the checkpoint and a person asked me if I was the same Dean from 'the internet.' I told him I was, and we chit-chatted for a second (couldn't spend too long, since we were busy at the time), but he said he saw my name on FT. I didn't ask him who he was, though; it was just neat that someone mentioned it.

Yeah, no, I'd say I'm fairly straightforward about my identity.

That's awfully kind of you, sir, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to decline your offer. As much as I feel the keen sense of duty to help try to raise awareness and understanding between the public and the TSA - both ways - I also have a duty to protect the sensitive information entrusted to me. I won't be a sieve.

I'll just have to make the best I can do.

Don't worry, though, I'm not going to just let it go. Give me a few days; I'm going to talk to the SSI liaison officer here in HSV, see if the information is protected (it might be, and it might very well not be; like I said before, I don't really know off the top of my head).

If it isn't, I'll be back here to let you and everyone else know.

You should’ve picked ORDTSO Timmy as your screen name.

Seriously though, if the haraSSSSment is being pulled back this is good news.

I'd love to join the party if and when SSSS is gone and is not replaced by something more sinister or discriminatory. I'll never get that time back and it was a complete waste of time, for the trips we had with Aloha between Hawaiian islands for our wedding anniversary.

Thanks for the really useful comments to date on the thread. We can only hope that it reduces the trouble of less-experienced travellers who get more than they bargained for.

I brought to the board's attention here

There of course won't be an official announcement... but we've got it from our management and being the nice TSOs we are... we've relayed whatever we heard here. ;)

Because to quote GI Joe... "Knowing is half the battle!" :D

I'll believe it when I don't get groped and have my belongings emptied onto the table while going through the checkpoint.

Ummm...so very, very, very not true. A subpoena and a bit of legwork would not make it too hard to track most of what is posted here or anywhere else online.

Very true.

Can we still request a secondary for the sake of nostalgia?

With SSSS going away as a general rule, is it possible that "Secure Flight" has come online?

I haven't seen anything to indicate that "Secure Flight" is live yet or a date that it is going live.

My understanding is Secure Flight is supposed to replace the CAPPS system and will also help reduce mis-matches against the NFL. Personally, I am not a fan of Secure Flight because it requires the airlines to send personal passenger data to the government for analysis and the government then decides if you get to fly or if you're SSSS'd.

It wouldn't surprise me if the new system was put in place quietly without announcement, but I'd also think someone would have posted about it or there would have been a news story on it.

Secure Flight has been widely published -- if it is now being used - or a "phase I" of Secure Flight is in use, I can't see how that should be SSI. The public should have the right to know, just like a disclosure is made of a credit check when one makes an application for credit.

The only other alternative -- someone finally decided that CAPPS was inefficient and just doesn't work based on existing criteria. At one point after 9/11, a one-way ticket was almost a sure SSSS - that is no longer the case - and as time has gone by, I've found many items that would = SSSS in the past have gone away.

Ask the screener where gate SSSS is once you clear the metal detector :p

Well it depends....

Firstly not everyone uses their internet at home - if you use free wifi, such as Panera bread or some other service which doesn't require a logon or credit card, there is zero chance they can find you.

Secondly, if you connected from home, depending on what you wrote online (I'm speaking more generically here), they would need to prove who did the actual posting. In a household with multiple people, it would be hard to prove who posted something, especially if it's a new screen name without a history.

So - if you wanted to post something in complete secrecy with absolutely no way to track you, you can do the following:

1) take your laptop to a free wifi location, or

2) use a cash-bought debit card at a Kinkos or other computer place

If you have a screen name with a history which could identify you, make a new one for these types of sensitive postings.