TSA introduces 'known traveller' program to let people skip the airport check | Hacker News Reader

TSA introduces 'known traveller' program to let people skip the airport check

economist.com

11 pointsegor837 comments

This "convenience feature" seems nice at first glance, but it positively frightens me: Our government can now coerce the general public to join a federal database with details of our private affairs by threatening ill treatment.

Airport checks are degrading. Taking off your clothes, public pat-downs... There's nothing dignifying about treating everyone like they might be a terrorist.

TSA has complete geographic reach in the US. They're in more airports than Starbucks and Cinnabon! This reach means everyone is affected.

I've never been one for conspiracy theories, but much of TSA policy has so far been "slippery slope" forays upon the general population.

Will the next step be a "known citizen" program that includes the features of the "known traveller" program and new benefits for volunteer-surveillance?

I actually don't mind the government running a background check on me or looking into my private affairs as I don't have anything to hide from them. To me, that actually feels much more dignified than walking barefoot over a disgusting carpet and having my person searched in public.

I can certainly understand how some people would see this as an invasion of their privacy though, and I respect that viewpoint as well. Maintaining the dignity and privacy of individual citizens while putting procedures in place to intercept legitimate threats is not an easy problem to solve.

Everyone has something to hide because you never know what they're looking for. Maybe they'll find some long-shot link to terrorism and book you for it. Maybe they'll find something on your Facebook page that doesn't smell right. Maybe they'll think your name is suspicious.

Maher Arar is a Canadian citizen who was arrested and tortured because he inadvertently listed a "suspected terrorist" as a contact on a lease. In other words, he knew someone who was suspected of knowing someone who was allegedly a terrorist. How many degrees away do you have to be to be safe?

This hysteria over security brings about a lot of lapses of judgement with enormous consequences to people with "nothing to hide".

Anything that perpetuates this absurd security theater, especially by introducing an arbitrary double standard, is only going to make things worse.

> It's clear that TSA wants this programme to be successful. So do its critics. So let's support this effort and hope for the best.

The first part is clear. The second part is not, especially considering that none of the critics are quoted or cited in the article.

Farewell, journalism. You were kind of cool for awhile, but at this point I think Mira Grant's "Feed"* is on the right track.

* http://www.amazon.com/Feed-Newsflesh-Book-Mira-Grant/dp/0316...

Only 150 dollars and an invasive background check to be treated as I should be, and as I would have been as little as 10 years ago.

Interesting logic here.. so now an aspiring young terrorist with no real prior history can simply skip all of our security measures for a $150 donation to the TSA?

"Those of us who have been critical of airport "security theatre" in the past should make sure to encourage anything that looks like reform."

This is why I don't seek to read The Economist anymore.

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