ACLU urges Senate to Examine TSA’s Privacy Violations in Post-9/11 Record
Oct 16, 2007, 8:55 pm
#1
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ACLU urges Senate to Examine TSA’s Privacy Violations in Post-9/11 Record
aclu.org press release
Washington, DC – As a Senate transportation committee holds a hearing today on the Transportation Security Administration’s implementation of the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations, the ACLU hopes Congress will examine TSA’s record of implementing security measures without sufficiently addressing their privacy implications.
Since 9/11, TSA has introduced virtual strip-search machines at airports, seized passengers in airports unjustly, conducted overly intimate pat down searches and perhaps most disturbingly, catalogued travelers into databases and ranked them according to their perceived risk.
The following can be attributed to ACLU Senior Legislative Counsel Tim Sparapani:
"TSA’s record since 9/11 has been a greatest hits of sacrificing privacy in the name of security – only we aren’t more secure and we have fewer rights. TSA has taken away our freedom as travelers by using virtual strip-search machines at the airport gate and listing Americans in databases like terrorists in a lineup. Being stripped of our privacy does not make any of us safer. Congress must hold TSA accountable to the American people to restore both our safety and our freedom."
Since 9/11, TSA has introduced virtual strip-search machines at airports, seized passengers in airports unjustly, conducted overly intimate pat down searches and perhaps most disturbingly, catalogued travelers into databases and ranked them according to their perceived risk.
The following can be attributed to ACLU Senior Legislative Counsel Tim Sparapani:
"TSA’s record since 9/11 has been a greatest hits of sacrificing privacy in the name of security – only we aren’t more secure and we have fewer rights. TSA has taken away our freedom as travelers by using virtual strip-search machines at the airport gate and listing Americans in databases like terrorists in a lineup. Being stripped of our privacy does not make any of us safer. Congress must hold TSA accountable to the American people to restore both our safety and our freedom."
Oct 17, 2007, 9:26 am
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the ACLU hopes Congress will examine TSA’s record of implementing security measures without sufficiently addressing their privacy implications.
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Oct 17, 2007, 1:53 pm
#6
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It's time the ACLU acts on behalf of all of us citizens. They have the financial and legal resources to make an example out of somebody.
FYI, Mrs Flies and I had to leave the USA to see the Aussie version of the Privacy Act in action at SYD. She was chosen for a random bag swab. Before proceeding, the screener gave her an 8x11 (whoops -- "A4" -- laminated sheet with front & back text of full disclosure of her rights under the Aussie Privacy Act. She had to verbally consent to have her backpack swabbed. Not bad...
Oct 17, 2007, 8:50 pm
#7
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They exempted themselves from some reporting requirements but they did not get an exemption from the disclosure requirements before soliciting personal information. That particular violation of law happens every time a screeners decides to do a secondary on someone and demands the passenger's boarding pass and DL and enters that information into a data base without the required disclosures -- in writing. (Look on any IRS tax form and you can see what a disclosure says.) The PA states that the individual government employee (a screener in this case) who violates the law can be thrown in jail for up to a year and fined something like $5000.
It's time the ACLU acts on behalf of all of us citizens. They have the financial and legal resources to make an example out of somebody.
FYI, Mrs Flies and I had to leave the USA to see the Aussie version of the Privacy Act in action at SYD. She was chosen for a random bag swab. Before proceeding, the screener gave her an 8x11 (whoops -- "A4" -- laminated sheet with front & back text of full disclosure of her rights under the Aussie Privacy Act. She had to verbally consent to have her backpack swabbed. Not bad...
It's time the ACLU acts on behalf of all of us citizens. They have the financial and legal resources to make an example out of somebody.
FYI, Mrs Flies and I had to leave the USA to see the Aussie version of the Privacy Act in action at SYD. She was chosen for a random bag swab. Before proceeding, the screener gave her an 8x11 (whoops -- "A4" -- laminated sheet with front & back text of full disclosure of her rights under the Aussie Privacy Act. She had to verbally consent to have her backpack swabbed. Not bad...
also, in line with the subject of this thread, what about all the times i get asked "what's the nature of your injury" or 'what's wrong with your foot" (or ankel as the case may be)
Oct 17, 2007, 8:55 pm
#8
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2nd (and final) stock answer: "I think the Privacy Act of 1974 addresses your question."