Welcome to FlyerTalk. ^

If TSA asks for that kinda info, the phrase Pack Sand springs to mind.



TSA= Too Stupid for Arbys

Which paper?

And welcome to Flyertalk.

You responses are checked against your credit report among other things...they have a "data provider" that will look up such things that aren't "official" information. The DMV doesn't have things like your former addresses.

--PP

In the early days of the TSA, like when there were jackbooted thugs (american soldiers w/ weapons drawn) at the checkpoints, I remember being asked for a list of the medications I was carrying. I was intrigued w/ the request so I started to make names and prescription numbers up for the foreign bought meds the TSO was looking at. Once I saw what I wanted to see, namely a log with passenger name, med name, place of dispensing and physician name, I informed him that he was breaking Federal law by noting down the information I had given him and that he should not have even asked me the question (He was violating HIPAA). "What's HIPAA?" he asked. I spent the next 20 minutes explaining HIPAA privacy requirements to his supervisor, with the help of a ppt presentation I happened to have on my laptop. The supervisor was most appreciative and to this day, I have never seen that log again and neither have I been asked any questions about what meds I may be taking.

I thought HIPAA only applied to certain "covered entities" like healthcare providers and insurance companies. Does anyone know for sure?

i recently forgot my password for my chase online account. they asked me the same sorts of questions that the TSA is asking: mother's maiden name, the county a former residence was in, etc. three or four different things.

i assume this info is from the same data source(s) that the TSA uses since i never gave chase any of this information when i recently opened my account.

Yeah, and one of these commercial verification schemes (maybe even was Chase) started asking me incredibly personal questions that I was uncomfortable answering. I was nearly on the verge of hanging up on the person, and told them that. They were starting to ask questions about my parents' years of birth, whether I was related to a person with a full name including the same last name as me, etc. It was all very disconcerting. IMO they have no business trying to get me to reveal information about other people to verify myself.

IMO these (commercial) verification schemes should stick to asking questions about the person they are verifying, not their relatives, friends, or roommates. And TSA should stay out of this icky business all together.

As the country's largest healthcare provider and healthcare payor, the Federal Government is as bound by the privacy provisions of HIPAA as anyone.

Logging, displaying and retaining patient names, medication names, prescribing physician and dispensing pharmacy information was not I imagine deemed to be very productive (as opposed to checking the volume of shampoo and lotion carried) and It was probably understood to be a very visible intrusion which is why whoever thought of it probably backed off quickly.

If you'd like to know what information they really have about you (beyond the "which company did you open a mortgage account with in 1988" type stuff) , just keep answering "I don't know."

Folks, we've removed several posts here as borderline personal attacks on each other.

Just a friendly reminder that the topic is "Hassled for personal information" and not each other.

Thanks for staying on topic and playing nice with your fellow FT'er.


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Cholula
Travel Safety/Security Forum Moderator

Don't ya mean "Pound Sand"?

Just curious...even though it was 'back then', why would the TSA ever need to, or have the right to collect information on prescriptions? Furthermore, why would anyone volunteer that information?

Alot of that info is public knowledge and is derived by data mining. A member of my family works for one of the credit card companies and he says the amount of info that is commonly available about an individual is scary.

I once applied for a credit card over the phone and they started asking me multi-choice questions such as previous address, cars owned, etc. I did not like that one bit.