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It's worse than just membership fees. To join a precheck program, you need to submit personal information that they constitutionally can't force American citiz
by jessriedel 11y ago
It's worse than just membership fees. To join a precheck program, you need to submit personal information that they constitutionally can't force American citizens to provide, even at international borders: fingerprints and retina scans. So basically they hold huge amounts of your time hostage in order to force you to provide what ought to be protected info.
It's similar to incentives for long-term contraception. The government can't fine you for not taking contraception -- that would obviously be monstrous -- but they can raise taxes and then offer rebates to people who submit to it. It's lunacy.
https://www.aclu.org/norplant-new-contraceptive-potential-abuse https://www.aclu.org/norplant-new-contraceptive-potential-ab...
- spdustin 11y agoNo retina scan for PreCheck, that's for Global Entry / Nexus.
- jessriedel 11y agoYea, thanks. I was being sloppy and using "a precheck program" to refer collectively to Global Entry, Nexus, and PreCheck. Obviously, the argument still applies to PreCheck with regard to fingerprints.
- grkvlt 11y agoNo retina scan for anything, actually. NEXUS uses iris scanners [1] for biometric identification. In fact, pretty much anything that is reported as using a 'retina' scan is probably not, and is also an iris scan. Retinas are pretty useless as a biometric, and are quite hard to scan without opthamological equipment. Irises have the dual benefits of being unique to the individual, and visible on the outside of an individual. [1] http://usa.immigrationvisaforms.com/travel/nexus-iris-scan-locations http://usa.immigrationvisaforms.com/travel/nexus-iris-scan-l...
- spdustin 11y agoThanks for that clarification! I honestly never considered that technical aspect of the scans, as I do not have Global Entry, and I didn't know that retina scans are technically infeasible to utilize for ID purposes. You've given me something further to research: are iris scans harder to defeat with false information (like specialized contacts) than fingerprint scans (with whatever the hell they can be falsified with). There goes my morning! :)
- sokoloff 11y agoIris scans are optional for Nexus as well. It's only require if you want to use the Nexus stations to enter Canada by commercial air. I have a Nexus card (just got it last month) and if I only use it to enter Canada by land, sea, or private aircraft, I can skip the iris scan.
- ibejoeb 11y agoOnly NEXUS requires an iris scan, and only for entering Canada via an air border.
- cookiecaper 11y agoI don't think I'm really paranoid about my personal information. I remember a time when everyone's name, phone number, and address were published in a large white book and distributed to every home in the metro area. I think a lot of the hyperventilation about that stuff is a little over the top. However, I draw the line at biological data. That is permanent, irrevocable, unchangeable personal information that no one really has a right to. It's not like you can just go unlisted, change your number, or move to avoid the heat. It's a basic component of your being. That data should be closely guarded. It creeps me out that some gyms have started using the little fingerprint scanners to verify access. I don't travel that frequently, but I wouldn't get PreCheck because I want to keep that personal biological information private.
- jessriedel 11y agoI actually don't care about any of that info. I'm just annoyed about the principle that the these sorts of end-arounds are allowed.
- sokoloff 11y agoPhilosophically, I agree, but it's a weak point of agreement. I've already been fingerprinted multiple times for the armed services, for background checks for financial services jobs, for pilot authorization to fly into the DC SFRA and land at the MD/DC-3 airports, and maybe a few other reasons. My fingerprints are already in multiple databases and I don't have particular concern about giving them one more time.
- morgante 11y agoI personally don't see how something which I'm constantly leaving behind to strangers can be considered private data. It's personal but I don't think it's private.