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Airport security in the US used to be privately contracted until 9/11. In the aftermath, TSA security replaced the private security at all but a handful of air
by jessriedel 7y ago
Airport security in the US used to be privately contracted until 9/11. In the aftermath, TSA security replaced the private security at all but a handful of airports, and simultaneously tightened screening procedures. Over subsequent years, the airport security experience got significantly worse in terms of longer lines, privacy invasion, and more burdensome screening (although these changed at different time and in lumpy ways). Because of this history and the lack of alternatives, it's hard to tell how much of this is because the agency is dysfunctional and how much is an unavoidable aspect of increased security standards which are pretty widely supported by the general public (but not HN).
- briandear 7y agoI have the exact same “privacy invasion” at airport security on domestic European flights.
- qaq 7y agoyou are taking off shoes and passing through full body scanners ?
- mprev 7y agoThe shoes, it depends on how big they are. The body scanners ... roughly a third of the time.
- jessriedel 7y agoYes, the US pushed many countries to tighten their security in the aftermath of 9/11. It's still unclear to me exactly where things are worse, and how much of this is rules vs. agency. Not sure why the scare quotes. Having to open up your luggage for strangers and get patted down on the crotch seems pretty unambiguously an invasion of privacy (in the sense of "invasive surgery"), whether or not it's justified.
- komali2 7y agoDo you have your genitals examined in a backscatter scanner? Do you have your genitals physically examined if you opt out of the visual examination?
- komali2 7y agoThe security standards have not improved - tsa fails more than 90% of their audits, and there are many private security professionals screaming into the void about the pointlessness of TSA's methodologies. Easy example - the addition of tsa creates huge lines that are excellent, dense targets for terrorists.
- jessriedel 7y agoThe TSA is indeed embarrassing, but since we don't have audit data from the private security in previous eras we don't actually know if things are getting better or worse. There is also the notable fact that airplane-based terrorism in the US is now extraordinarily low, significantly lower than before 9/11. The causality here is hard to disentangle. In any case, I purposefully said "tightened" not "improved". All I need for my comment is that the rules have become more stringent since 9/11 (e.g., shoes off, no liquids, etc.), which is obviously true.