Next Stage Of Security Theater: Homeland Security Wants More Info To Let You Board A Plane

from the feel-safer? dept

Apparently, the Department of Homeland Security would like to add another layer of security theater to the airplane boarding process. Homeland Security is now taking over the process of matching your identity to government watch lists at airports (away from the airlines), and they're going to start demanding more info. You will not be allowed to fly if you don't provide your first and last names, birth date and gender. This is positioned as a way to avoid the various "false positives" we've heard so much about with fliers who have similar names to those on the no-fly list. While it's good that they want to cut down on those false positives, it's not as if this makes you any safer. It just requires giving up more privacy to fly.

Also worth noting is that this is the first time that the government has actually admitted how many people are on the no fly list (about 2,500) as well as the "selectee" list for extra careful searches (another 16,000). They also noted that it's quite rare for anyone on the no-fly list to actually try to fly (about once a month -- and it's almost always initiating in a foreign country). Of course, if you were actually a terrorist, would you fly under your real identity?

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