Perks of Pre-Check Highlighted in NY Times

I am against Pre-Check (formerly, Trusted Traveler; always 'Papers, Please!') as a long-term solution to airport security, as I've written about here before. However, the expansion of the program may be a promising sign that public opinion can, and has, affect airport security policy. That is a point also noted in this NY Times editorial about the Pre-Check program.

I do worry that this is an effective ploy to appease enough of the traveling public to allow the TSA to continue to shed our rights. Hopefully, I'm wrong.

Are scanners on their way out?

I am cautiously optimistic that the feds are trying to quietly abandon the naked scanner program. I have been railing against the Trusted Traveler program, now renamed to PreCheck, but I now see this despicable program as, perhaps, a path to being able to fly again. Blasphemous, I know. But bear with me.

Businessweek reports:

"The TSA plans to begin randomly assigning travelers into the PreCheck program when they check in for a flight, assigning the quicker access with a notice on the boarding pass. No new passenger data will be needed—and TSA officials emphasize that there’s no form of request or lobbying a traveler can do to be chosen for the quicker line. The TSA wants to migrate about 25 percent of the travelers it screens each day—about 450,000 people—into the PreCheck lines to improve efficiency."

Naked scanners are expensive to buy, take up a lot of precious space at checkpoints, are likely very costly to maintain, and are politically somewhat unpopular. In addition, the TSA has backed itself into a corner where, in order to maintain the illusion of scanner efficacy while simultaneously giving legal cover for privacy concerns, they created the even more unpopular pat-down opt-out. Many TSA employees probably hate the pat-downs, so now they have disgruntled employees to deal with (not to mention, train). Finally, the scanners are actually not effective at catching determined, intelligent evil-doers.

So, perhaps, the TSA is trying to phase out the scanners in a way that they believe well save face and not anger the vested interests. After all, Chertoff's Rapiscan already lost its contract.

***

Changing gears a bit from seeing into the murky motives of government, what should a protestor such as myself do about PreCheck. If you're still flying, I think it is entirely reasonable to make your journey more comfortable by ponying up the bribe of $85. The background check and fingerprinting are more worrisome from a privacy perspective, but I think this is a judgment call. Keep in mind that there is no guarantee that you'll get the fast track or avoid the naked scanner. In addition to random checks, this program is not yet instituted at all airports or even all terminals at a participating airport.

One perk - and this is a biggie for me - is children of the PreCheck adult stay with the parent and receive the same level of screening, but they don't have to provide fingerprints, etc. So if you're mostly concerned about protecting your kids, PreCheck is a viable choice. Not a guarantee, but a better chance that you're child will not have their privacy invaded, be molested, or be treated like a criminal.

Trusted Traveler face-lift

It's really purely superficial. As the TSA expands the (horrid) Trusted Traveler program, it is changing the name to "PreCheck."

A bit of push-back in New York

In an otherwise run-of-the-mill article, in an upstate New York news site, repeating the Wall Street Journal's report on the expanding Trusted Traveler program, we find this conclusion:

The TSA should find a way for all passengers to keep their shoes on, too.

Only the politically favorable will be able to fly soon

Pistole gave testimony on Capitol Hill in which he stated that the horrendous Trusted Traveler program is going to be expanded:

As a result, Pistole said, the agency is moving in the new direction by expanding several pilot security programmes and changing the way children are searched at airport security checkpoints.
A test programme that began last month at four American airports � Miami, Dallas, Detroit and Atlanta � lets passengers who volunteer personal information zip through a special screening lane without having to remove their shoes or jackets, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Pistole told lawmakers that it has worked so well that he wants to expand it to more airports.
"We are working closely with other airlines and airports to determine when they may be operationally ready to join," he said. [emphasis mine]

Here's the deal: you open up your entire personal, financial, political, medical, etc... files for the state, and it will allow you to take your family home for Christmas, have a face-to-face business meeting, or just take a vacation. This has great and terrible potential for abuse. Maybe you trust Pistole, (big sis) Napolitano, Obama, your Congressman, etc... But maybe you won't like the one that replaces him or her in five years. Are you so confident that there is nothing in your history that could ever be used against you by a totalitarian jerk?

I am also assuming that by using the plural "security programs," that SPOT will also soon be expanding beyond Boston. This is the Stasi-style interrogation methods in which they intimidate passengers in order to identify who is worthy of flying.

TSA News Roundup

• We know the TSA doesn't really protect us from terrorists, but it can occasionally catch people who are smuggling live animals (including parrots, snakes and turtles). Aside from such smuggling having nothing to do with national security, I'm pretty sure that stewardesses and fellow passengers could similarly note a live animal on a plane.
• The TSA agent who had used her position of power to aid a drug smuggling ring had her day in court and pled guilty. But, of course, it's "unfair" to form an opinion of other TSA agents based on this one agent's actions. Unless you realize that corruption is bred by bureaucracy.
• What's worse than a regurgitation of a TSA press release about cartoon software upgrades? An editorial that is a regurgitation of said press release. It even ends by saying: "the TSA deserves credit for responding to customer concerns."
• Ineffective TSA lead to calls for draconian measures by some:

Sometimes, sorta, kinda, trusted traveler

In a write-up about the Trusted Traveler trial, CBS news reports:

However, the "pre-clearance" will not be always mean a quick pass through the checkpoints. To keep potential terrorists from exploiting the expedited screening as a loophole, sometimes the pre-screened passengers will still go through a full check.

Wool pulled over his eyes

Noah Schachtman has a column on Wired that references a subscription-only column in the Wall Street Journal. And it's just plain silly. For example:

Clearly, Schneier had figured out some way of getting into TSA administrator’s head. The man was some kind of Charles Xavier type.

Or maybe — just maybe — Pistole, after a year on the job, was finally feeling comfortable enough at the administration to make the changes he’s been itching to implement from the start.

The first paragraph there is supposed to be obviously ridiculous. It's not that Schneier is telepathic. So is Schachtman then saying that the next paragraph is a likely scenario? Give me a break! If Pistole were not comfortable in the administration, he would have sat back and let the TSA continue on autopilot for awhile. Instead, he actively requested money for more naked scanners from Congress, actively promoted the "enhanced pat-downs" that leave passengers feeling molested, and has repeatedly appeared on TV not-apologizing for one abuse after another.

With friends like these...

"Tourism industry leaders" are calling for a more pleasant travel experience for visitors to the US, specifically a quicker entry process. So far so good. Their solution, though, could use a makeover: a Trusted Traveler program for tourists. I'm sure that people the world over are clamoring to hand over their past to US Customs for the privilege of giving their money to Americans.

Like Google+ for rights violations

The Trusted Traveler pilot program is starting:

Passengers can't sign in to the system. Frequent flyers will be invited in. If successful, TSA hopes to expand the program to other airlines and airports. 

More here about why I don't like it.

Coverage of the Trusted Traveler Program

Some neutral and some negative. Here's my opinion.

By the way - I want to reiterate something in Rand Paul's questioning of Pistole. He pointed out that the law is clear on whether flying is a privilege: it's not a privilege, despite Pistole's opinion on the matter.

'Trusted travelers;' And maybe we can 'trust' children

It's official - the terrible "trusted traveler" program will have started pilot runs by the end of the year.

The article also says:

TSA was confronted recently by another uproar when a six-year-old girl was subjected to a physical patdown after she went through a full-body scanner, raising questions about whether children pose a security risk.

Pistole said the child moved during the scan, prompting the patdown, but that TSA has once again changed its policy for such scenarios and that he plans to unveil more changes soon. But he noted that militants have used children in attacks before.

"We have changed the policy to say that there will be repeated efforts to resolve that without a patdown," Pistole said. "I will be announcing something in the not-too-distant future about a change in policy as it relates to children."

This hardly sounds like children will be exempt from pat-downs - the least the TSA should do if it has an iota of decency. But, less child abuse is less child abuse, I suppose.

Fixing a train wreck - Part 2

I received an email from someone who wanted me to link to their list of ways to improve airport security - specifically by making it faster for the passengers. However, there was no indication that the author wanted to make it better for the passengers. That is, all of the rights violations currently in place were taken as a given, and the list was just ways to make each rights violation more efficient! Here's my response:

Jessica-

Your article is full of half-measures that do not address the real problem. I've covered this topic in the past (see list below) and see no reason to link to you. However, here's a list of 10 ways that the government has and will continue to illegally botch airport security while violating our basic rights. Feel free to blog it (in which case I will link to you!)

(regarding whether our luggage and persons should be subject to so much scrutiny to begin with):
US Law - The 4th Amendment
Human Rights

(This one is relevant Re: the shoe scanner idea):
Does the state care about your health?


On so-called under-staffing:
There will always be a security gap
Incompetence rewarded

What's wrong with the various ways of "improving" security, including low-risk travelers, prior identification, and slow/fast lanes:
New! Improved! (And still a rights violation!)
More on the "Checkpoint of the future"
Will the 'checkpoint of the future' even work?
Expedited trusted traveler program? Well...
Fixing a train wreck

-Kathryn

Since when did libertarians stop fighting for civil liberties?

I got this link off of Facebook (thanks, Boycott Flying!).

• First, I didn't know the Reason Foundation - a libertarian think-tank run by the Koch brothers - had a regular newsletter on airline policy and security. At first, I thought, "I ought to be reading this on a regular basis."
• Second, reading this newsletter on a regular basis would be a waste of time. This is not at all libertarian. It is standard right-of-middle statism. The author buys into the need for the feds to run security. He also buys into the idea that "CrewPass," "Trusted Traveler," and similar schemes are a good idea and too long coming. These things are horrible invasions of privacy and rightly opposed by the ACLU. Reason should be ashamed for putting this trash out under their name.
  

Expedited trusted traveler program? Well...

I wrote about some version of a trusted traveler program being instituted (and, to my surprise, it's been a very popular post). Another article (on a site that apparently caters to the "papers please!" industry) now has this choice quote from the TSA:

The program will be different from previous ones because it also won’t guarantee expedited processing. Participants could be pulled aside at any point. “We won’t guarantee expedited screening,” the spokesperson explains. “There will always be a random element to this.”

Ah, yes. The ever-present element of surprise configured to look like security, but actually a way to cover their butts and let them do whatever they want, whenever they want, and keep us perpetually on our toes in fear of what they might do to us. Did you expect anything less?

Poll: (Don't) Like the 'Trusted Traveler' idea?

Weigh in at Sodahead.

The TSA wants to know everything about you...

... and airlines are complying. Heck, even the "libertarian" Reason Magazine appear to be supporting this. What ever happened to the idea that we should be able to travel freely from state to state? I predict that if the trusted traveler program takes off this time (it failed before) that at first it will indeed be voluntary. But, soon enough, all travelers will have to undergo a full background check before being allowed to fly. Also, keep in mind the TSA's functioning definition of voluntary: Scans are "voluntary." The choices are

1. scan
2. aggressive custodial search (aka, pat-down)
3. fines and/or imprisonment

Remember that just two years ago, you didn't have to give the airline your date of birth when you bought your tickets. Your birthday is one of the things that identity thieves can use to cause you harm, but Americans just rolled over and started giving their entire family's birthdays to the airlines so it could be handed over to the TSA to "protect" us.

This trusted traveler idea a bad, bad thing. It sounds efficient, effective and common-sense. But you have to remember you are dealing with a rogue agency. More TSA power is the last thing to wish for.