Begin forwarded message:
From: Ian Stoba <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: June 16, 2006 7:13:30 PM EDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [IP] more on Who they're spying on DO READ
I have an additional question for the collective wisdom of the IP
list, if you see fit.
Much like Mrs. Anonymous, I am on the TSA selectee list. I had at one
point ten consecutive flights for which I received a boarding pass
with SSSS in the corner. This included flights on multiple airlines
purchased with different payment methods and varying degrees of
advance purchase.
Recently, I took a trip with my wife and three children. To my
surprise, all five of us received the SSSS mark on our boarding
passes. We were all pulled aside for additional screening. I was very
surprised that the TSA screeners told me that my children would not
be patted down, because apparently there is a TSA policy against
performing extended physical searches of children under the age of
12. We did all have our baggage and our shoes swabbed for explosive
residue. My family was kept in the selectee area for approximately 30
minutes while I was searched very extensively.
Our our return trip, my daughter was in tears approaching the
security checkpoint knowing that she would be pulled aside and
wondering how long her father would be detained. As before, I had a
longer and much more thorough search than my wife and children.
Based on this experience, I had two questions:
1. Are the members of my family now "tainted" by having traveled
with a selectee? Will they now face additional screening every time
they fly, perhaps for the rest of their lives?
2. I suppose I can understand treating children differently, but I
am very surprised that I was searched so much more thoroughly than my
wife. This and several other experiences, like being pulled out of
the check-in line for extra screening _before_ I had even been issued
a boarding pass, makes me think that there may be some additional
criteria for separating out gradations of selectees. Has the TSA made
any public indication that this is the case? Have any other frequent
travelers noticed this phenomenon?
While I was being searched on our return trip, my wife asked a TSA
screener why I was constantly singled out. The screener asked if I
happened to be an employee of the federal government, or a government
contractor. The answer was no in both cases, but this seems like an
interesting selection criterion.
--Ian
On Jun 16, 2006, at 2:23 PM, David Farber wrote:
Begin forwarded message:
From: Jeff Jonas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: June 16, 2006 8:10:10 AM EDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [IP] Who they're spying on DO READ
Dave, feel free to post or just share with your anonymous friend
directly ... your call.
=======================
Dear Anonymous,
It is more likely that your wife has been "wrongly matched" (i.e.,
false positive) rather than "wrongly named" (i.e., she is actually
the person named on the list). Paul Rosenzweig and I wrote about
this in greater detail in this Heritage Foundation paper (http://
www.heritage.org/Research/HomelandDefense/lm17.cfm).
The challenge is preventing your wife from repeated infringements.
This highlights the need for watch list redress and remedies to the
growing false positive problem which is being caused by the ever
growing size of the watch list and ongoing lack of watch list
fidelity (i.e., sparse attributes) which result in many false
matches based on name similarity alone.
Jeff Jonas
Distinguished Engineer and
Chief Scientist
IBM Entity Analytics
702.851.4697
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
My blog: www.jeffjonas.typepad.com
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<mime-attachment.jpeg>
David Farber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
06/15/2006 12:09 PM
Please respond to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To
[email protected]
cc
Subject
[IP] Who they're spying on DO READ
From: Anonymous
Date: June 15, 2006
Subject: Re: Who they're spying on
There are many unknown consequences from the recent laws
circumventing privacy and security constraints on the government.
For example, the TSA "Do Not Fly" (DNF) list is being used by law
enforcement agencies to capture anyone with an outstanding want or
warrant. As we all know TSA will not tell you why your name is on
the list. Moreover, they will not say where the names come from that
are on the list.
My wife ended up on the list, which lead to a 2+ hour wait to be
cleared at the airport. During that time we talked with several TSA
people and one police officer. After TSA finally decided she could
fly, they invoked the standard procedure to clear someone which was
to have a local police officer run a warrant/want check. I mentioned
to the TSA officer that the DNF list sounds like a good way to
capture anyone wanted for a crime. He said yes, and I believe he said
that some law enforcement organizations were putting many names on
the list.
I asked Dave to make this posting anonymous because after this
problem with the DNF list, which went on for several months/trips, my
wife and I are much less willing to publicly confront our government.
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