What TSA Knows About You

[The Davy Crockett]

From the NY Times article from 10/21/13: Security Check Now Starts Long Before You Fly

From the article:

The Transportation Security Administration is expanding its screening of passengers before they arrive at the airport by searching a wide array of government and private databases that can include records like car registrations and employment information.
While the agency says that the goal is to streamline the security procedures for millions of passengers who pose no risk, the new measures give the government greater authority to use travelers’ data for domestic airport screenings. Previously that level of scrutiny applied only to individuals entering the United States.

The prescreening, some of which is already taking place, is described in documents the T.S.A. released to comply with government regulations about the collection and use of individuals’ data, but the details of the program have not been publicly announced.

It is unclear precisely what information the agency is relying upon to make these risk assessments, given the extensive range of records it can access, including tax identification number, past travel itineraries, property records, physical characteristics, and law enforcement or intelligence information.

The measures go beyond the background check the government has conducted for years, called Secure Flight, in which a passenger’s name, gender and date of birth are compared with terrorist watch lists. Now, the search includes using a traveler’s passport number, which is already used to screen people at the border, and other identifiers to access a system of databases maintained by the Department of Homeland Security.

In combination with full body scanners, just exactly how fully controlled, and naked for examination and inspection, do We The People Sheep need to be to fly in the future? :blush: :blink:

 

[Ryan]

And before we get to the bulls--t "they need to do this to keep us safe" argument, the TSAs own internal documents say that there is no serious threat.

“As of mid-2011, terrorist threat groups present in the Homeland are not known to be actively plotting against civil aviation targets or airports; instead, their focus is on fundraising, recruiting, and propagandizing.”

"there have been no attempted domestic hijackings of any kind in the 12 years since 9/11."

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131019/02322924936/accidentally-revealed-document-shows-tsa-doesnt-think-terrorists-are-plotting-to-attack-airplanes.shtml

Edit: I should give a nod to Jishnu, I ran across this when he posted it on facebook the other day - meant to start a thread on it and hadn't gotten around to it.

 

[jis]

Yeah, I thought that article was interesting. In a past life .... er.... part of my Computer Science career, I was involved quite deeply in IT Security matters, including chairing a standards committee that developed one of the various security protocols. At that time I had come to know many folks in that interesting exclusive community, including several from the Puzzle Palace. Some of them occasionally point me to these gems that I am able to share.

BTW, at least when they (DHS/TSA/CBP) have even more info on you they let you bypass the body scanners completely, and just subject you to a cursory magnetometer walk through with both your jacket and your shoes on. It still has to be a good circus for it to be convincing.

When you participate in Global Entry they do a pretty through vetting going back several decades. They asked me questions about the time before I started paying Social Security taxes,which would be before 1984 (an interesting coincidence on the year there in this context )! That would suggest that they had accessed those records and at least taken a cursory glance through it.

 

[chakk]

Not only the magnetometer instead of the chemical sniffer or microwave imaging system, but also the shoes stay on, the laptop computer stays in its bag, and the liquids and gels in the quart-sized plastic bag can stay in that bag inside your carryon luggage. And you don't even have to make a conscious effort to apply for this expedited TSA-Pre review service. They come to you and add your name to this special list on their own choosing.

Don't know how much safer this system of scanning is compared to the others in use, but for some people, it does reduce the total time to pass through the airport sercurity system, especially at busy airports with very centralized scanning locations (like Denver).