Cinquain - Slashdot User

Submission + - TSA's 'Behavior Detection' Less Than 1% Efffective (usatoday.com)

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Tuesday November 18, 2008 @06:06PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "Fewer than 1% of airline passengers singled out at airports for the much vaunted "suspicious behavior detection techniques are arrested, Transportation Security Administration figures show. The TSA program, launched in early 2006, looks for terrorists using a controversial surveillance method based on behavior detection and has led to more than 160,000 people in airports receiving scrutiny, such as a pat-down search or a brief interview. That has resulted in only 1,266 arrests, often on charges of carrying drugs or fake IDs, the TSA said. The TSA has not publicly said whether it has caught a terrorist through the program."

Submission + - TSA bans ID-less flight (cnet.com)

Submitted by

mytrip

on Monday June 09, 2008 @07:36PM

mytrip writes: "In a major change of policy, the Transportation Security Administration has announced that passengers refusing to show ID will no longer be able to fly. The policy change, announced on Thursday afternoon, will go into force on June 21, and will only affect passengers who refuse to produce ID. Passengers who claim to have lost or forgotten their proof of identity will still be able to fly.

As long as TSA has existed, passengers have been able to fly without showing ID to government agents. Doing so would result in a secondary search (a pat down and hand search of your carry-on bag), but passengers were still permitted to board their flights. In some cases, taking advantage of this right to refuse ID came with fringe benefits — being bumped to the front of the checkpoint queue."

Submission + - Full body scanners installed in 10 US Airports (usatoday.com)

Submitted by

Lapzilla

on Friday June 06, 2008 @05:58PM

Lapzilla writes: "Body-scanning machines that show images of people underneath their clothing are being installed in 10 of the nation's busiest airports in one of the biggest public uses of security devices that reveal intimate body parts. The Transportation Security Administration recently started using body scans on randomly chosen airline passengers in Los Angeles, Baltimore, Denver, Albuquerque and New York's Kennedy airport. Airports in Dallas, Detroit, Las Vegas and Miami will be added this month. Reagan National Airport near Washington starts using a body scanner Friday. A total of 38 machines will be in use within weeks."

Submission + - Passenger scanning device sets off privacy alarms (networkworld.com)

Submitted by

coondoggie

on Thursday October 11, 2007 @12:17PM

coondoggie writes: "When the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced today it will begin testing a body-scanning machine that could ultimately replace the metal detectors airline passengers walk through at airports, it set of some alarms — particularly at the ACLU. The alarms are in response to tests — which are scheduled to begin today at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport — of a new screening system that uses radio waves, known as millimeter wave imaging technology to scan passengers and detect foreign objects hidden underneath clothing. "This technology produces strikingly graphic images of passengers' bodies. Those images reveal not only our private body parts, but also intimate medical details like colostomy bags. "I continue to believe that these are virtual strip searches. If Playboy published them, there would be politicians out there saying they're pornographic, " said Barry Steinhardt, of the ACLU."

Submission + - DHS Plans Changes in Air Passenger Screening (itworld.com)

Submitted by

narramissic

on Friday August 10, 2007 @05:01PM

narramissic writes: "The Department of Homeland Security on Thursday announced plans to revamp its Secure Flight program, with the agency no longer no longer assigning risk scores to passengers or using predictive behavior technology. In addition, the Transportation Security Administration, part of DHS, will have direct control of checking domestic passenger lists against terrorist watch lists, instead of the airlines, said DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff. But as Marc Rotenberg, executive director of privacy advocacy group the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), notes, air passengers still can't see the reasons why they're targeted for extensive searches or kept off flights, nor can they correct bad information on the terrorist watch lists. 'The problems with the watch list are still valid and are not going away,' said Rotenberg."

Slashdot Top Deals