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$100 to Fly Through the Airport
- polemic 15y agoOh ho - so the TSA strategy comes to light, monetisation plans are implemented.
- bradleyland 15y agoIf only it were as innocuous as monetization. This is far more nefarious. Submit to their background checks and no more hassle. Just give up your privacy in exchange for more security theater.
- insickness 15y agoNow the TSA is making money off of the it's own incompetence.
- marcamillion 15y agoThe $100 is for a background check. I doubt the TSA makes much money off of that.
- kazoolist 15y agoHrm; I read that as "Oh ho - so the TSA strategy comes to light, _molestation_ plans are implemented"
- shimfish 15y agoPhase 1: Scan underpants Phase 2: ???? Phase 3: Profit!
- pmorici 15y ago"If a passenger is cleared for Precheck screening, a code is embedded in a traveler's boarding pass." I'd give it 50/50 odds that the embedded 'code' in the boarding pass can be easily forged.
- jkubicek 15y agoThis is the TSA we're talking about. The 'code' is probably the words, "Cleared for Precheck" printed on the boarding pass.
- Achshar 15y agoor some kind of uneditable NFC. they say "embedded" and not printed.
- ecspike 15y agoBP don't have NFC, Precheck works for a BP printed at home or at the airport.
- seanp2k2 15y agoI'm sure terrorists will never ever ever figure out how to use Firebug or the built-in Firefox Inspector to edit page text before printing their boarding pass. This hack was featured somewhere, but I lost the link.
- ecspike 15y agoI've gone through PreCheck at ATL. Nothing on my BP said PreCheck. Part of the qualifications that the article didn't mention is that certain high level elites are eligible, so it might be whatever designator determines that status. The TSA agent scanned the BP, there was a beep sequence similar to when you have exit row and they directed me to the other line.
- gcb 15y agoheh, most airports i fly locally the guy scans nothing. all he has is a ultraviolet(?) lantern and latex gloves.
- geuis 15y agoSo in essence, the TSA is now an extortion racket. Might as well rename it MAFIA. I'm sure Congress can come up with an acronym to fit that
- danilocampos 15y agoCreate a problem. Sell a solution to that problem. I'm so out of energy for this stupidity I can't finish my comment. Bye.
- snikolov 15y agoI wonder how expensive background checks are and how much (if any) of the $100 they'd get to keep.
- danilocampos 15y agoGiven the wonders of government efficiency, I'm sure they lose money on each one, while some private, well-lobbied company enjoys the juice. That's the worst part.
- silencio 15y agoI very much doubt it's thorough at all and I wouldn't be surprised if that was mostly profit, ignoring government inefficiencies. I signed up for Global Entry (the "backdoor" for this program, presumably with similar paperwork) sometime in early summer last year before this domestic flight security thing was available. My interview was a joke. I don't think they verified anything I put down in my application. The CBP officer just briefly glanced at my drivers license and papers and spent more time asking me if I wrote Angry Birds ("what is your job?" "I write iPhone apps...") while looking me up and down (it was a hot day, maybe a bad day to wear a low-cut summer dress). I walked out of there in 5 minutes with my angry birds/cleavage supported approval. I fly domestic dozens of times a year and I consider this program to be utter bullshit on the part of TSA. I'm not really providing any more information than they can already discover by information they require you to enter for purchasing a flight. I'm exchanging a false sense of security at a cost I find stupid (even though my Global Entry app fee was free). I really don't know why people can't rise up and try to get rid of TSA security theater instead of being all excited that this kind of program exists.
- seanp2k2 15y agoBecause people still largely feel that the TSA and DHS are necessary, ignoring the irony that wr're still living in a post-9/11 fear-driven society where Bin Laden still literally terrorizes us. TSA/DHS are a joke, and if you think they're honest and/or necessary, I suggest you follow the money. I'd say start with the companies who make full body scanners (millimeter wave, which uses ionizing radiation and causes cancer (ref: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backscatter_X-ray http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backscatter_X-ray ), but that's a whole other can of worms.)
- verelo 15y agoBased on this logic i dont see why i cant send an invoice to the TSA for my time. They are probably so incompetent they'd actually pay it...
- idiot900 15y agoSo all a terrorist organization needs to do is have some of its members who have yet to commit any crimes sign up for this program. There is no way the screening is 100% perfect - there will be some false negatives, and they can be exploited. This type of program is par for the course for the TSA: introducing yet another layer of theatrics for no meaningful security benefit. The US civil air system is still no safer than it was in 2001, and that's a crying shame.
- jbri 15y agoWhy would they do that? Precheck flyers have to go through a metal detector, which is actually harder to smuggle stuff through.
- sukuriant 15y agoYou're right, it's not like there's ceramic alternatives to most metal weapons or anything. Hell, I have a ceramic knife in my kitchen.
- Jach 15y agoWhy go through all the trouble and risk a connection to the organization showing up on a background check when they could just go after the hundreds of far less secure systems around the world, causing far more damage (economic or people) and terror? Oh wait they're incompetent. I was only a kid in the 90s but I still remember the stark differences of flying back then compared to now. These days the only joy I get from flying is asking specifically for a can of soda and receiving a can instead of a cup that only holds about a third of a can.
- presidentender 15y agoI always get tonic water. Nobody else gets tonic water, so once the steward offered me the entire can. Now I get tonic water and ask for the entire can. They always give it to me. Here I thought it was because I was so clever for drinking tonic water, and they're giving out entire cans of Coke.
- jjcm 15y agoSo how can I sign up?
- sharth 15y agoFrom the article, you are able to sign up if you are a member of CBP's Global Entry, or if you are invited by Delta or American Airlines. To be invited, you would likely need to fly out of one of their hubs frequently, and have a large number of miles with them each year.
- toomuchtodo 15y agoI'm already a Global Entry member and wasn't able to simply apply for this, but as you said, there is additional criteria to meet.
- zdw 15y agoGreat! Just impersonate one of these people and bring whatever you want onboard! Is there's still a huge hole between security and boarding - you can go through security on one ticket (which could be totally fake) and fly out on another, which could be used to get around the "code on the boarding pass" protection...
- politician 15y agoUnless you're Jason Bourne, what's the point of going through security with a fake boarding pass if you also have a real one? The No-Fly List isn't parameterized by destination.
- schiffern 15y agoHe's talking about holes in the "ID triangle." http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/11/the-things-he-carried/7057/?single_page=true http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/11/the-thin... >The ID triangle: before a passenger boards a commercial flight, he interacts with his airline or the government three times—when he purchases his ticket; when he passes through airport security; and finally at the gate, when he presents his boarding pass to an airline agent. It is at the first point of contact, when the ticket is purchased, that a passenger’s name is checked against the government’s no-fly list. It is not checked again, and for this reason, Schneier argued, the process is merely another form of security theater. >To slip through the only check against the no-fly list, the terrorist uses a stolen credit card to buy a ticket under a fake name. “Then you print a fake boarding pass with your real name on it and go to the airport. You give your real ID, and the fake boarding pass with your real name on it, to security. They’re checking the documents against each other. They’re not checking your name against the no-fly list—that was done on the airline’s computers. Once you’re through security, you rip up the fake boarding pass, and use the real boarding pass that has the name from the stolen credit card. Then you board the plane, because they’re not checking your name against your ID at boarding.”
- tertius 15y agoFor those not on the no-fly list carrying something dangerous.
- mmvvaa 15y agoI can imagine how the meeting after this posting went: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3673462 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3673462 Boss: "Gentlemen: The $1B investment in TSA nude body scanners we made is worthless. Suggestions?" Tom: "We could monetize the old way, call it a fancy name, and pretend we actually do something extra, so that people still feel safe." Boss: "Good idea, Tom. Get to it."
- mmvvaa 15y agoI can imagine how the meeting after the scanners were proved worthless* went: Boss: "Guys, the $1B investment in body scanners is worthless. Suggestions?" Tom: "We could monetize the old way, call it another name, and pretend that we would actually do some extra security check to keep people from panicking." Boss: "Good job, Tom. Get it done." * http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3673462 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3673462
- shingen 15y agoExtortion, you're doing it right.
- notatoad 15y agoAnd every politican and airline regulator gets automatically entered into this program, so that they never have to experience how the average person flies.
- kristopolous 15y agoAnd so the apartheid security state begins. Here's the endgame: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_checkpoint http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_checkpoint
- sukuriant 15y agobut .. Israel is actually good at what they do O.o. In fact, in previous HN discussions, we've cried out for a more Israeli style airport security..
- marshray 15y agoI wonder how many people wanting Israeli-style airport security really have any idea just what they're asking for.
- kristopolous 15y ago> Israel is actually good at what they do O.o. Yes. They are the best at religiously driven oppressive racism. You want to find people that think non-kin aren't fully human in 2012? Hey, I used to work in a room full of them; but never on Saturday of course ;-)
- SoftwareMaven 15y agoThis is brilliant news. As more people get molested by TSA and watch others getting to breeze through just because they paid some money (that will be how most people look at it), there will be more uproar about how ridiculous these policies are.
- marshray 15y agoWatch for partitions going up so the privileged classes can breeze through discreetly.
- firass 15y ago"We can reduce the size of the haystack when we are looking for that one-in-a-billion terrorist," said TSA Administrator John Pistole.
- redmondbarry 15y agoSo not only <xyz protection racket comparisons>, you can't actually even bank on it if you get it. '[..] says he's gotten Precheck screening on about 80% of his trips so far [..]' While I'd much rather sit in some miserable lobby than stand in line for two hours, this means you save exactly zero time unless you're happy to miss X% of your flights..
- staunch 15y agoI don't see a conspiracy theory or extortion here. To me it just looks like run of the mill bureaucracy and the bureaucratic non-solution to every problem: more bureaucracy.
- stevewillows 15y agoDoes anyone know if the check differs from Nexus?
- callmeed 15y agoOuch, sucks for Clear. They raised $100M+ and still are only available in 2 airports. http://www.crunchbase.com/company/clearme http://www.crunchbase.com/company/clearme
- dmoy 15y agoWhile I agree that a lot of stuff the TSA does is incredibly stupid (and this new deal isn't exactly a paragon of security), I'm seeing a lot of random meta-FUD here. If you actually read the entire article, you will notice a few things: 1) Domestic precheck clearance is free, not $100. 2) International precheck is $100. 3) It is a slight return to 'normalcy' (for some definition of normal), albeit for only a few people for now. It is at least SOMEWHAT a step in a sort-of right direction (not #2, paying $100 for this is bullshit), instead of the typical step in the complete wrong direction we've been seeing from TSA. I can hope, at least, that it will allow some of the people at TSA to see a graceful exit from their strategy of pointless security theater, and a return to cheaper, similarly effective screening. There is a major creep factor with the application you have to fill out though. It's essentially all the information you have to give for a basic background check - 5 years of address and employment information, the works. Also their website is unbelievably poorly formatted, slow, and seems to randomly crash. Bleh.
- HSO 15y agoI have a, possibly naive, question for Americans: Why isn't this a political issue? From all I read, TSA seems to be universally loathed. Then it should be easy to change in a democracy. Why is it so hard?
- almightygod 15y agoIts all about prioritizing. As much as the TSA may be a now, 30 minute inconvenience, there are so many more serious problems to solve. IMO it would be irresponsible of a candidate to position their political platform around improving the TSA which affects the avg american probably once or twice a year at most. Meanwhile you have a struggling economy, attempts to ban scientific progress, shutting down the internet, inequality for minorities, the list goes on
- maaku 15y agoBecause none of our elected representatives care.
- rrrazdan 15y agoMaybe because many Americans understand that in this changed security environment, such kinds of check are necessary. America has been very successful in preventing a repeat of 9/11. Surely TSA deserves some credit for that? I may be the only one thinking like this, but as an Indian, we live in constant fear of attacks. And I find these checks a necessity. Inconvenient, yes. Humiliating, perhaps. But surely necessary?
- enneff 15y agoHow do they deserve credit? Their security procedures are demonstrably flawed. And, of course, the most obvious relevant point: terrorists can do many things other than hijack planes, many of which are outside the TSA's jurisdiction. We don't have the equivalent of the TSA here in Australia and I don't feel any less safe for it.
- drostie 15y agoWhile I agree that "America has been very successful in preventing a repeat of 9/11," the truth is that this is utterly separate from what the TSA is involved in. The US has focused much more counterintelligence on al-Qaeda and bombed the crap out of them and assassinated their leader, and US civilians now know that they cannot tolerate being passive members in a hijacking and will take down a hijacker even if it means their lives. (It might be the case that their Federal Air Marshals service also deserves some tiny bit of credit, but I am hesitant to allow a Trusted Officer to board a plane with a gun -- it introduces new vulnerabilities on how you verify that someone is Trusted in the first place, either as a passenger or as an airport? and perhaps the terrorists can now steal weapons from the Air Marshals or bribe them). The measures that we're upset about are due to some prominent security failures of the TSA, mostly to do with private individuals using plastic explosives. The most prominent were the shoe bomber (thus now we take off our shoes) and the underwear bomber (thus now you must either let them take a naked picture of you, or else submit to the Freedom Fondling of your genitals to look for such things). However, other intrusive regulations like "don't take a bottle of Pepsi on-board, it will be confiscated" come from a failed "liquid explosives" plan which we caught before they put it into action. The underwear and shoe bombs got right through the TSA's security screening, and were defeated by passengers noticing that people were trying to set weird things on fire. People have been upset about the stupidity of airport security since before 2001; George Carlin's rant on airport security was in 1999, you can find it on YouTube easily. His ringing words, "Haven't found anything yet, haven't found one bomb in one bag" still rings true, surprisingly enough. We even found plastic explosive charges in cargo planes -- but only because counterintelligence sources intercepted the information of the plan and told us where to look. These guys digging around in your bags never did. Let me tell you what's wrong here, in one brief statement. You know what happened when I last went through a naked body scanner? It went off loudly. You would think that this means that I would be a very sorry person indeed. No. They lazily took me aside, looked at where the computer software had drawn a circle (around my head), decided that it was probably detecting my ponytail as a false alarm, and whisked me on my way. Wait, you say, you mean their alarms went off and they yawned? That's correct. Your chance of being a real unidentified terrorist is probably smaller than one in a hundred million. Their machine's false positive rate is probably larger than one in a thousand. That means that even if their machine goes off, there's only a one-in-a-hundred-thousand chance that you're a serious threat. The officer who deals with you will be conditioned by the last hundred non-threatening people he has very thoroughly investigated, and has started to say, "okay, yeah, boring. This person looks as trustworthy as the last hundred. I guess I'll let them pass." I don't know how al-Qaeda feels about our new TSA policies, but it's probably laughable when compared to their fear of our military drones. The TSA probably doesn't make any terrorist afraid.
- illdave 15y agoThis appears to be remarkably corrupt.
- speleding 15y agoAmsterdam airport has had a system in place for years where you can bypass immigration by looking into a retina scanner and have an express lane through security. It takes a one-time thorough check and an annual fee of about €70-€120 depending on additional services (parking place close by, family plan, etc). I am by no means a frequent traveller but only for a few flights a year that €70 is totally worth it.
- avar 15y agoSecurity at AMS has never taken me more than 15 minutes, including the time spent standing in line. When I arrive I just walk on out of the airport without any checks at all, that's for flights from Europe though.
- dalke 15y agoAgreed! AMS is my favorite airport to fly into. When I arrive from outside of Europe the line for border control is rarely more than 5 minutes. Unlike, say, Heathrow.
- kenkam 15y agoThis is capitalism gone wrong.
- jrmg 15y agoI'm surprised no-one has yet brought up the issue of equality. The US government has now decided that rich citizens get easier treatment than poor citizens - isn't this a moral issue? Shouldn't all citizens be treated equally?
- cryptoz 15y agoThey decided that a long time ago with healthcare. If you're rich, you get better hospital service. If you're rich, airports are nicer.
- brown9-2 15y agoWho is "they" in this case? Because what we have now is one half of the government trying to make healthcare more equitable, and the other half vehemently fighting that.
- TheFuture 15y agoIf you're rich, you get a better car too. Not really the same thing. You don't have a constitutional right to fly on an airplane. You ARE supposed to be protected from unreasonable searches though. If $100 means that you no longer need to be frisked/scanned, when then that kinda proves that those are unreasonable searches, they certainly are unnecessary.
- Zak 15y agoHospital services are not provided by the government; airports are. * It seems reasonable to be able to pay the airline more for better treatment by the airline (first class, lounges, etc...). * It seems moderately unreasonable to be able to pay extra (either directly or through the airline) for shorter lines at the checkpoint (first class lines). * It seems entirely unreasonable to be able to pay extra to avoid safety procedures, as I'm sure a terrorist organization with global reach can find an accomplice who can pass a background check. Either the intrusive screening procedures are necessary or they're not. Things that inconvenience the rich tend to get changed. Consider public transportation in most large European cities compared to most large US cities. The rich do not ride the bus in Miami. This is an attempt to avoid the change by making the system more convenient for the rich without fixing it for anyone else.
- Rhapso 15y ago"At the foot of the end wall of the big barn, where the Seven Commandments were written, there lay a ladder broken in two pieces. Squealer, temporarily stunned, was sprawling beside it, and near at hand there lay a lantern, a paint-brush, and an overturned pot of white paint."
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- ilamont 15y ago"Background checks" are a major drag on the U.S. economy. I'm not only talking the TSA mess at airports. Legal immigrants typically are held up years as various agencies probe and prod and check to make sure they are not an Al-Qaeda sleeper cell or some other baddie.
- cheatercheater 15y agoCan you give an example of being "held up years"? I can't imagine such a thing, but I'm not US-American.
- cheatercheater 15y agoA positive view can be had by a skeptic like me, too. I think this is just the TSA & Co. realizing the full on security cabaret will not work out in the long term, and they are giving in. The first step is to allow the most pissed off people with the biggest portfolios skip it. Soon they'll be forced by the 98% to do the same for them.