This, my friends, is a bad idea
Posted in Rants on January 20th, 2006 by DhammaSeekerFrequent Fliers to Get Security Pass - Forbes.com
It’s a fucking travesty that the terrorist attacks of 09/11/01 have led us down the primrose path to hell to this point.
The Registered Traveler card would let frequent fliers go through airport security lines more quickly if they pay a fee, pass a government background check and submit 10 fingerprints, according to a federal official familiar with the program’s details, which were being announced Friday. The program will begin June 20.
*insert that cliche quote about liberty and security here*
“It sounds like they want private companies to be in the business of law enforcement and intelligence gathering,” Hofmann [an attorney with the privacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center] said.
Once again. Bad idea.
There’s already a private company running a Registered Traveler test program at the Orlando (Fla.) Airport. Verified Identity Pass, which was started by media entrepreneur Steven Brill, charges $79.95 for the card.
Earlier this month, the company told the TSA that it tested whether commercial data services could authenticate that a person is who he says he is.
The results: “We dropped the idea after fully testing it and finding that it had no security benefits and significant, almost show-stopping negatives,” the company said in a document responding to the TSA’s request for information.
Well of course it’s got no security benefits. The entire TSA operation of airline passenger screening has not appreciably increased airline safety for anyone I contend.
Other private companies such as General Electric, ARINC and Iridian Technologies, along with airports, think there’s money to be made in the business of verifying people’s identity at airports.
Well of course there’s money to be made here. Isn’t that the entire fucking point?