Wanna fly in the USA? Here’s the latest hoop to jump through. Yes, there’s a ‘professional’ that can see all your gadgetry.
That part I don’t personally mind, but just where is it gonna stop? This is incremental erosion of privacy and freedom, all in the name of the government protecting you.
Luggage Locator is a device that is meant to help you locate your luggage. Instead, it seems to be one of the worst ideas ever.
A battery operated, two unit system, the Luggage Locator consists of a small transmitter about the size of a key chain and a lightweight receiver that attaches to any luggage handle. With the simple push of a button, the transmitter activates the receiver causing a bright flashing light and loud chirping sound. Locating your luggage after a long trip has never been quicker nor easier.
It is ideal for travellers, saves time and provides peace of mind. It is lightweight, sturdy and water resistant.
Re-read that quote. When activated a bright, red light will flash and the device will make a loud, chirping sound. Just watch and see what happens when you activate it at the airport. This is a great companion the the Talking Luggage Locator.
Luggage Locator only costs $25, plus 25 years in the pen. As for me, I’m sticking with the bright red stickers on my luggage and the piece of orange string on the handles in order to tell which bag is, indeed, mine.
Many people are so sick and tired of traffic cameras that are used only as revenue generators in the United Kingdom that they have resorted to destroying them completely. Speedcam has a very large collection of photos of these traffic cameras and is worth the time to take a look at them all. The vandalized and burned cameras are probably my favorite.
Here’s the cut and paste that I got a few days ago from US Airways in my email about Secure Flight. Though you’d have to pay me to ever set foot on one of their planes again, I believe these rules are for all airlines.
Secure Flight changes how you book with US
Beginning October 30, 2009, we’ll be asking you for a bit more information when you book a reservation. The reason? A new, federally-mandated program called Secure Flight.
Run by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Secure Flight requires that we collect each passenger’s:
- Full name (as it appears on the government-issued photo ID you travel with)
- Date of birth
- Gender
- TSA-issued Redress Number (if applicable)
According to the TSA, Secure Flight will greatly reduce the number of passengers misidentified as matches to the watch list. Providing the required information will help prevent delays at the airport, particularly for passengers who have names similar to those on the watch list.
For more information or to learn about TSA’s privacy policies, including its privacy impact assessment, visit tsa.gov.
Thanks for flying with US.
Considering that my full name as it appears on the government-issued photo ID I travel with is my passport or my driver’s license, why do I then have to add my date of birth and gender? That’s already listed on all government-issued IDs. Do people suddenly forget what their gender or DOB is? I know that, if I were a criminal, I’d certainly know this and I don’t think any terrorist is going to lie about whether they are male or female.
I guess I’m just cranky that I now have to provide more information that is, essentially, redundant and doesn’t really help anything.
Deirdre Walker recently retired as the Assistant Chief of the Montgomery County, Maryland, Department of Police after spending 24 years as a police officer. She has written an excellent article detailing her encounters with TSA officials in Baltimore and Albany and criticizing the lack of consistency within the TSA at security checks.
This is where I find myself now obsessing over TSA policy, or its apparent lack. Every one of us goes to work each day harboring prejudice. This is simply human nature. What I have witnessed in law enforcement over the course of the last two decades serves to remind me how active and passive prejudice can undermine public trust in important institutions, like police agencies. And TSA.
Over the last fifteen years or so, many police agencies started capturing data on police interactions. The primary purpose was to document what had historically been undocumented: informal street contacts. By capturing specific data, we were able to ask ourselves tough questions about potentially biased-policing. Many agencies are still struggling with the answers to those questions.
Regardless, the data permitted us to detect problematic patterns, commonly referred to as passive discrimination. This is a type of discrimination that occurs when we are not aware of how our own biases affect our decisions. This kind of bias must be called to our attention, and there must be accountability to correct it.
One of the most troubling observations I made, at both Albany and BWI, was that — aside from the likely notation in a log (that no one will ever look at) — there was no information captured and I was asked no questions, aside from whether or not I wanted to change my mind.
Given that TSA interacts with tens if not hundreds of millions of travelers each year, it is incredible to me that we, the stewards of homeland security, have failed to insist that data capturing and analysis should occur in a manner similar to what local police agencies have been doing for many years.
Some might argue that the potential for intrusion is not the same between police and TSA. I believe my experience this past weekend demonstrates otherwise. Currently, there is no way to know whether a certain male screener routinely identifies predominantly women for additional screening. There is no way to identify whether a Latino screener routinely isolates African-Americans, or vice versa. To assert that the screeners are highly trained and do not engaged in this type of discrimination, whether passive or active, is unsupportable because there is no data. You simply cannot solve problems that you do not want to identify.
Hopefully, her story will make people more aware of what their rights are at the airport security line and more people will refuse and demand to know exactly what rights they have. Until now, it’s been murky at best. What is true at one airport isn’t at the next. Records need to be kept in order to know if passive or active profiling is taking place and passengers need to know where they stand and be informed, correctly, about what is occurring.
