NEWS //
TSA To Demand Every Traveler’s First/Last Name, Blood Type and First-Born Child
by Mike Richard
Foreign travelers coming into the US have grown accustomed to the additional scrutiny at airports. Now, a proposal by the Transport Security Administration wants to take that a step further, and make it mandatory for all Americans buying airline tickets to furnish their first and last names, birth date and gender. Currently, travelers are only required to give a last name and use an initial in place of their first name.
The proposal has both airlines and privacy rights activists up in arms. You can’t really blame the airlines. Between forcing people to get off the flight because they’re dressed inappropriately and handling passengers who’ve been “handling” themselves on flight, they have enough on their plates. Already the American Society of Travel Agents, the Air Transport Association, and Continental and Virgin airlines have voiced their opposition to any such proposal, claiming passengers were likely to “desist” from giving out private information, and that would only make their job more difficult.
The proposal is riddled with doublespeak. It requires airlines to ask for every traveler’s name, birth date and gender details, but does not mandate passengers to supply the same. Passengers who don’t comply can expect “additional screening” or “denied transport.”
Interestingly enough, the highest opposition seems to be not toward the full name requirement, but towards the birth date and gender requirements. No prizes for guessing where all that opposition is coming from.
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About the Author
Vagabondish editor, Mike Richard, lives in Rhode Island - a spit of land in the northeastern U.S. He is a professional web designer and travel junkie with an unhealthy addiction to backpacking, camping, hiking and seeing the world. He enjoys knit hats, small, declarative sentences and speaking in the third person.
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December 11th, 2007
I think TSA would be able to figure my gender by looking at me and guess my age within a few years. I feel better when the passengers on my flight have been thoroughly vetted. This is a lot less info required than a driver’s license application. So I have no problem with giving the additional info.
December 11th, 2007
I’m 100% with you, Peter. If people feel they have any modicum of privacy over their “first and last names, birth date and gender”, they’re crazy.
December 11th, 2007
Thanks for drawing more attention to an increasingly serious issue!
TSA and DHS don’t have the manpower to screen people individually. What they need is for the information to be processed through a database in order to look for patterns, and to positively match you. Thus, while an individual may be able to figure out that “Peter” is a male by looking at you, their databases cannot.
It also creates a more accurate file through which to track you. For example, while there may be 10,000 “Jamie Johnsons” that fly this year, only 2 were born on the 27 of July, 1972, and only 1 is a woman. And, perhaps only one is flagged as a threat.
DHS has dumped a lot of stock into automated “profiling” systems. While I am a fan of profiling, I don’t think its automation is a smart move. In order to look more into this, do a search on CAPPS II and its history. There are some MIT researchers that found the “mathematics” behind automated passenger screening leave our airports–ultimately–more vulnerable than with manual random screening.
I don’t understand the last statement, “no prizes for guessing where this opposition comes from.” I can think of three completely different groups that could be vehemently opposing or supporting this for a wide variety of reasons. Who is opposing this, specifically?
August 24th, 2008
You posters just don’t get it yet. The people doing business as the government of the US are dishonest, reprobates who are in the process of doing here what they helped to do to Russia during the Bolshevik revolution. Most of you will probably never get it as you spend too much time engaging in “entertainment” activities rather than being responsible adults just like your parents and grand parents. Thanks for dragging the rest of the responsible population down. Now go back to your TV!