TSA Tests Automated ID Authentication 190
CowboyRobot writes "Last year, a Nigerian man boarded a plane from N.Y. to L.A. using an invalid ID and a boarding pass issued to another person. A week later he was caught again with 10 expired boarding passes. In response to this and similar events, the Transportation Security Administration has begun testing a new system at Washington's Dulles International Airport that verifies an air traveler's identity by matching photo IDs to boarding passes and ensures that boarding passes are authentic. The test will soon be expanded to Houston and Puerto Rico."
a first (Score:5, Funny)
sign of sensibility from TSA... the world will end in 2012
Re:a first (Score:5, Funny)
What they haven't announced yet is, for the automated system to work, you first step into a room where a bunch of robotic arms probe your various orifices as painfully as possible. Then, for no apparent reason, you are hit with a high dose of radiation. If you oppose this sensible security measure, clearly you support the terrorists!
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They'll never use automation, no sport in it.
"The smallest minority on earth is the individual.
Those who deny individual rights cannot
claim to be defenders of minorities."
- Ayn Rand
First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out
Re:a first (Score:5, Insightful)
"The smallest minority on earth is the individual.
Those who deny individual rights cannot
claim to be defenders of minorities."
- Ayn Rand
I believe this statement ignores the possibility that the individual may be discriminated against for traits they share with other individuals who, collectively, do not make up a plurality or simple majority of the population.
That or it's a logically necessary starting point for Randian philosphy to work.
I'm inclined to suspect it's the latter, since Randian philosophy is full of assumptions that don't quite match the reality of human behavior.
Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
Didn't Rand hate unions and think Communists were evil?
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Does that mean they shouldn't have rights? I hate racists, but I would still defend their right to free speech.
Rand would not support unions' rights.
She would actively oppose their existence.
And she thought Communist ideology was evil.
Like... her whole ideology was formed as a counterpoint to Soviet communisim.
I'm not sure where I was going with that point, but I doubt she'd have kicked up much of a fuss if anyone collectively went after the communists.
The moral of this story is twofold:
1. Randian philosophy isn't very useful as a governing ideology and
2: you shouldn't mix your aphorisms.
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They're trying to come up with a better name than The Probulator.
Also, every 1 in 100,000 test subjects has a testicle "popped" for no apparent reason (TSA of course says it is 1 in 10,000,000).
Re:a first (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't forget: The system only costs 5 million dollars per gateway, per year.
If we only put this much effort into curing heart disease, we'd probably save a life or two.
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"Well, at least here you'll be treated with dignity. Now strip naked and get on the probulator."
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I get most of my boarding passes from my computer. It's delivered in HTML, which I can easily edit and view, changing the date to a different one and getting through security because they don't check the validity of the pass. Several people have done this, including some reporters. It's a significant gap, one that can be easily closed with almost no issue for the traveler, and one that makes a lot more sense than the 3oz rule, the shoe rule, or the scanning rule.
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Can you describe a situation where knowing the identity of the person flying would be important? I reckon they exist, I just can't think of any.
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You can get through security with an altered boarding pass; you can not get on a plane that way without somehow sneaking past the gate. The TSA does not currently validate the boarding pass, but the airline does at the gate. An invalid pass means at the least that you're delayed getting on the plane, and at worst, you're getting arrested on at least counterfeit document charges, if not something far more serious.
There is still one loophole that cannot be closed: the refundable ticket. Say you want to see
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That's a legitimate gripe, to be sure, but it seems like there are other ways it could be prevented. For example, it used to be that you didn't need a boarding pass to get through security - anyone could go through to see off their significant others without buying, and then returning, a ticket as long as the
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That's not what I said. Here's where I went in response to your original post that we're identified when we get our boarding pass:
1. Not all boarding passes are accompanied by positive ID, such as when they're printed from a computer at home.
2. Such boarding passes may be modified by altering the HTML and redisplaying locally and then printing. Alternately, they can be altered in a graphical editor.
3. At the moment, boarding passes are not validated by TSA. I just flew last weekend and while they ran my
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No, it's a sign of institutional stupidity they're trying to compensate for. What is different between ID in the US and in Israel?
What the goal will become is biometrics regardless of how flawed that is.
TSA is more about terror than what they claim to be preventing.
Re:a first (Score:4, Insightful)
sign of sensibility from TSA... the world will end in 2012
Not really. There's no sign that he was a threat to the safety of the aircraft, he's just an asshole doing illegal stuff.
The 'S' part of the TSA stands for 'safety'. They're not there to enforce laws.
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The 'S' part of the TSA stands for 'safety'. They're not there to enforce laws.
What? No, it doesn't. TSA abbreviates Transportation Security Administration. The Nigerian may not have been malicious, but he demonstrated a security hole. Patching it is ostensibly within their remit. Am I missing something?
Re:a first (Score:4, Interesting)
Did you see the price tag on it??
I never understood why they didn't tie in the TSA checkpoint with state DMV and ICE.
Years ago, someone demonstrated that they could print up first class boarding passes to get through the TSA checkpoint in the preferred travelers line. It didn't do any good getting on a plane, but it got them into the secure area with no hassles. The TSA has no method for checking that a boarding pass is legitimate. Right in the airport. Where every ticket agent has access to the information already. {sigh}
All US states now have photographs on their drivers license. 13 states allow for an exemption due to religious beliefs.
Foreign nationals entering the US have to show their passport. Recording the ID at the checkpoint is trivial, and is probably being done already.
So, if you plan to get on a plane, you probably have a photo on file, that can be retrieved electronically.
I found out that my state not only has my most recent photo on file, but particular departments can get every drivers license photo I've ever had electronically and virtually instantaneously. That is, it took longer to type my name, than for my pictures to load. I would have said BS, but they were kind enough to turn the screen so I could see it. Our licenses for the last few years have printed. They had photos from years ago where the license was hand typed and laminated with a photo in it.
I don't quite understand how all federal law enforcement departments don't already have access to this information, other than the fact that our entire country is a clusterfuck of bureaucracy. They've had over a decade to fight it out, where it shouldn't have taken more than a few months to agree upon the terms, and maybe another year to implement.
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Did you see the price tag on it??
I never understood why they didn't tie in the TSA checkpoint with state DMV and ICE.
Nice, but you forgot one important step there. Namely:
That and the fact they they had the ID in their possession are the only things that tie the person to the claimed identity.
But yes, that is a far more sane idea for improving security than almost anything the TSA has done.
The real reason that this is not being done might be that the TSA is not a law enforcement agency. Thus it is possible if not plausible that one or more states would not per
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Funny thing about your argument.. I happen to work in an industry that does contract to acquire data including DMV information. For the right price, a private company can acquire all the drivers license data, as well as complete history on every vehicle you've ever owned.
TSA may not be law enforcement, but DHS sure is. With that being true, it would be trivial for them to pass the data back to TSA. It may not be a total dump of all the records into a TSA database. Most lik
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DHS is not a law enforcement agency. Rather is is a United States federal department. It does contain more federal law enforcement officers than any other branch, but that does not make it a LEA.
The NCIC database is another example. They normally only give access to employees of actual law enforcement agencies (the employes are, however, not required to be law enforcement officers). Thus for the TSA to access it, would require that they used employes of the Federal Air Marshal Service, or get an exception t
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Re:a first (Score:5, Insightful)
Ummm ... I always assumed a suicide bomber would have a valid ID and matching boarding pass. It's not difficult.
This grand announcement is just another huge pile of TSA theater.
What a waste! (Score:5, Insightful)
One person did this, and it seems he was caught both times. Wouldn't that mean that the original practices were working? I guess any way to strip our rights and waste money is a good one. Did all of you know there is a clause allowing airports to opt out and use private security firms?? San Francisco, crazy isn't it, is one of the few airports that has used the option; and guess what, the passengers applaud the effort and can't believe how friendly and quick they are.
Re:What a waste! (Score:5, Informative)
Lots of people do this without getting caught.
http://www.dubfire.net/boarding_pass/ [dubfire.net]
Glad they are closing this loophole, it is one of the very few things the TSA has done or is doing that makes sense.
Re:What a waste! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What a waste! (Score:5, Funny)
"The TSA aren't needed at all. This is just a case of making sure those who get on the plane have paid."
Yep, can't have cheap bastards flying into our buildings.
Re:What a waste! (Score:5, Interesting)
it is one of the very few things the TSA has done or is doing that makes sense
Why should you need to present ID to fly? I'm 45 - I remember flying in the 80s to a student conference using the ticket of a buddy who couldn't go. (I also had a TRS-80 Model 1 in my checked luggage, but that's a different tale...)
Re:What a waste! (Score:4, Insightful)
That being the case, you probably also remember this: the whole photo ID and only passengers allowed at the gate stuff started in (over) reaction to the TWA 800 terrorist incident.
Oh, wait: later, the government decided it wasn't a terrorist incident. So if it wasn't a terrorist incident then what was the reactiion for and why wasn't it done away with?
Well, of course it doesn't do crap to enhance security. It pacifies the infantile minds who equate violations of liberty with actually being safe, of course, but the real effect was to kill the secondary market for airline tickets and enhance corporate profits.
Almost like somebody was waiting for an excuse to do that or something...kind of like the impossibly large Patriot Act which was allegedly written after 9/11 instead of sitting around waiting for a different excuse.
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am I missing something? Didn't they find the untouched passport of one of the 9/11 "terrorists" a block over? Tells me that having ID does not make one not a terrorist.
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Yep. The TSA's job is safety (hence the 'S') and there's no indication this guy was trying to do anything unsafe, he's just an asshole trying to buck the ticketing system.
At the very least I assume that suicide bombers will have valid ID and a boarding pass that matches it.
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Not really - in Britain (which dealt with terrorism from the IRA), it was routine to make sure baggage travelled on planes with the people who owned it, so bombs would take out the bomber. That was great for stopping those who didn't want to die when planting a bomb. Ensuring who is who when loading a plane is basic information that is quite reasonable for someone in charge to have.
Hint: Not all terrorism happened in the US, and the US does learn from other countries.
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Glad they are closing this loophole, it is one of the very few things the TSA has done or is doing that makes sense.
You are being sarcastic, right?
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One person did this, and it seems he was caught both times. Wouldn't that mean that the original practices were working?
I don't know. How would we know if somebody did it and wasn't caught?
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loopholes (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:loopholes (Score:5, Funny)
"Check to see if they are actually on a flight?"
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This was not a loophole. This was shear laziness or stupidity.
Ensuring that each piece of baggage matched a passenger was a requirement after the Lockerbie bombing. And it's just now that the TSA figures out it's a good idea to match boarding passes to passengers IDs?
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This check is a complete non-sequitor to 9/11.
The 9/11 hijackers had valid IDs and valid boarding passes for the flights they were on. They went through without any trouble that morning, and they would go right through with the inconvenience of taking off their shoes and an option of the ball-grope or dose of X-rays today.
Will cause more headaches due to EXACTNESS (Score:4, Insightful)
There have been stories of people being denied ability to fly because their ticket didn't EXACTLY match their ID. I'm sure this will result in more of the same.
(note to Westerners: in many many parts of the world, people have names with no exact relationship to how it is put on official documents... some people also have two birthdays (one is based on the moon, one is based on the calendar))
Strict unbending rules are the bane of society.
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Re:Will cause more headaches due to EXACTNESS (Score:5, Interesting)
Really, it's quite simple to follow this rule. What does your ID say? Use that information. Problem solved.
Unfortunately, it isn't nearly that easy. I have two first names, and two last names. My official document lists the four words (I've seen people with more than 4). A some airline systems are just not prepared to deal with those very long strings with spaces in the middle. Checking in with Air France, for instance, is a pain, because even if I go buy my ticket with my passport in hand to show them the exact spelling, they still truncate my names, my last names, and remove the spaces. So I've easily had to spend 30 mins at the check in counter while they try to find what combination they used. Needless to say, I avoid Air France, but other airlines aren't much better: at least Air Canada and WestJet insist on deleting the spaces from my name(s). I can tell you that I have never flown with a ticket that shows my exact name (the one in my passport and the one I give when buying it).
So no, its not nearly as easy as just using the same name everywhere... most of the places I visit wont let me use my full name! (But thank you implying that it's my fault)
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Re:Will cause more headaches due to EXACTNESS (Score:5, Insightful)
That's an eye opening statement. Really. It is your opinion that all people from, let's say, Spain [wikipedia.org] and Latin America should change their names to please you, because you are incapable of printing a document that reads [first name] [paternal last name] [maternal last name]. And that we all are from a "village to sing a little song of grandure for a name". That's beyond arrogant. And pretty stupid, too: it can be solved by just /not/ using a "lastname char(10)" field in the database (which is an amazingly dumb design).
But the ridiculous suggestion of "changing my name" doesn't even address my point: that the GP stated that it was just as easy as writing the name as it appears in your ID. If all Latin Americans and Spaniards need to change their name, then you are conceding the point that it is not that simple (imho, it should be: the only reason why you can type something in your 'lastname' field, and get something else printed out in your boarding pass, is incompetence). Mind you, most Americans and Canadians I know, have a middle name. Given that the aforementioned airlines have gotten my first+middle name wrong (FIRSTNAMEMIDDLENAME or FIRSTNAMIDDL instead of "FIRSTNAME MIDDLENAME"), I suspect that your suggestion of changing our names should probably apply to you as well.
(Did I just fed a troll?)
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Fix what names? I'm a westerner, with a romaji stylized last name, and a 'western' first and middle name. My entire name is over the 55, in fact it's 63 and it's on my passport without a problem. When I flew out west around two months back. Of the characters on my boarding pass there was 6 of my first, 3 of my middle and 8 of my last. Domestic travel in Canada? Not a problem, traveling in the US, haven't had a problem yet. Though it's not my problem you have an issue with "long" western names for us
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Re:Will cause more headaches due to EXACTNESS (Score:4, Interesting)
His passport isn't the problem. The problem is airline computer software which has been programmed with very short strings for names. My full name (as written in my passport) is 26 characters, and I have had airline tickets with my name truncated.
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Re:Will cause more headaches due to EXACTNESS (Score:4, Informative)
What does your ID say? Use that information.
Well, let's see. My native ID says: _a_string_that_can't_be_rendered_by_slashdot_ which is my name.
My driving license and my old passport say "Alexey". My new passport and my US visa say "Aleksei". Both are valid transliterations of my name (world doesn't use only English, you know) from the point of view of Russian laws (US consulate that issued my visa also agrees). Yet I've had a problem with a TSA officer and almost missed my flight.
Oh, I also have a patronymic which was mistaken for my last name a couple of times.
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Or you could stop being so arrogant you feel the need to use "PhD" outside of academia :)
Lots of airlines append the greeting at the end of your name - I know I get MR on there a bunch. I've never seen that be a problem for anyone.
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Or you could stop being so arrogant you feel the need to use "PhD" outside of academia :)
I know you are kidding, but why waste a perfectly good opportunity to bash a mediocre software system? In my (anecdotal) experience, changing even that may be hard. When I opened an account with Air Canada, I miss-clicked and ended up with "Prof." in my salutation, which I couldn't fix in the website afterwards. I phoned them to get it changed, and I was told that I had to make a formal request and present proof that I had changed my name (wtf??). Needless to say... I still fly as "prof". I guess I'm very
Spotted at SEA (Score:3, Interesting)
I took four flights over the last week. Monday I left SEA and I did not notice anything new. Friday I flew out of SEA again and the security guard took my boarding pass, scanned it, my name came up on the readout, he then did the usual comparisons against my ID and let me through. I gestured at the scanner and said, "That is not a trick I have seen before," there was glint in his eye and a small smile but no audible reply.
If you are still traveling on other peoples return flights (when the buy a round trip), it is time to stop!
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Just buy and refund another ticket in your own name, or get a lounge pass. Go through security with that. Then fly on the other one.
Checking names has nothing to do with limiting the introduction of weapons, incendiaries or explosives. It's payoff, in the form of revenue protection, to prevent the airlines from complaining about the TSA.
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If you are still traveling on other peoples return flights (when the buy a round trip), it is time to stop!
Again. WHY?
Dear Mr. TSA: (Score:5, Funny)
I recent inherited $30 million dollars US that I must hide from local tax collector. If you would kindly allow me to fly for free, I will deposit the sum of $2 million dollars in you account. Pleese allow my assistant to board your flight.
Thanks you,
Mujibar Undooku
Prime Minister of Financial Affairs, Nigeria
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Some of you have no clue what racism is. Most Nigerian fishing emails I got were written by someone with poor English skills.
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They could just enforce the existing rules... (Score:4, Insightful)
You know, they could just *enforce the existing rules* instead of implementing new ones. Note the boarding was with an "invalid ID".
And boxcutters were not allowed in carryon luggage planes on September 10th, 2001, either.
AC
Waitaminute... (Score:5, Insightful)
Weren't those called eyeballs on the first TSA person you run into? They wave the magic UV wand over your ID to make sure it's valid, then study the boarding pass, then the ID again, then look at you, scribble something on it, and then tell you to have a nice day.
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Don't give them ideas.
And by them I mean the TSA.
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But that doesn't check if you go to the right gate and get on the correct plane. This is a real security hole that was known should have been closed years ago. Remember the kid that modified his borading pass before printing it off and then blogged about it?
Security should all be done directly before bording. It's just too expensive to put in that many scanners and hire that many guards.
That's not TSA's job. That's the airlines job. It's their problem if they decide to honor an invalid boarding pass.
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This is a real security hole
You mean, this was a real (if very minor) threat to the airlines' revenues. There's basically zero security value in requiring ID to fly.
NICE! (Score:4, Insightful)
Apparently you can and will get groped or cavity-searched for no reason, or denied clearance because your baby is on the no-fly list, but they do let you fly with a fake ID and invalid boarding pass. That's very sensible.
Matching photo ID? Why? (Score:2)
I bet they can do better... if only your ID will include everything those scanners can see! Even better... that groping, you know?... can be simplified by a simple visual inspection (to be replaced by automatic body recognition), as long as you take off more than your shoes.
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mind's eye conjured up the scene in Family Guy:
"Penis recognition validated. Welcome, Mr. President."
"Hey, Quagmire, how'd you know that would work?"
"I didn't. I jut shoved it in and broke it."
WTF, TSA? (Score:5, Informative)
Next, we have to partially disrobe and empty our pockets
Then, we have to pass through a metal detector and a high-cost, dubiously useful (and even more dubiously safe) perv-scanner
You mean to tell me that TSA hasn't figured out, in cooperation with the airlines, of course, how to put some kind of cryptologic authenticator on boarding passes?
Perhaps they should have used some of the money they spent on perv-scanners to buy a computer, a bar code scanner and a crypto-hash generator for the boarding passes -- like they have at the gate when you board the airplane. They could scan the new high tech RealID[tm] licenses they forced on us, too, because you know they put an authenticator hash in them (right?)
Bruce Schneier hit it on the nose (and now, former TSA head Kip Hawley seems to agree: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303815404577335783535660546.html [wsj.com]) -- TSA is broken.
Re:WTF, TSA? (Score:5, Informative)
Bruce Schneier hit it on the nose (and now, former TSA head Kip Hawley seems to agree: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303815404577335783535660546.html [wsj.com] [wsj.com]) -- TSA is broken.
I kind of think that Mr Hawley learned some things when he debated Bruce [economist.com]. Because some of the arguments he makes in that article sound a lot like what Bruce Schneier has been saying for a while.
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ID is irrelevant (Score:5, Insightful)
There doesn't seem to be any valid security reason to show ID at all before flying, much less proving that your ID and boarding pass match, any more than there is when you take a bus, ferry, subway, or train.
If TSA (or whoever would be there if we abolished this waste of an organization) is doing its job, explosives should be stopped using existing technology (x-rays, random chemical swabs, not to mention, you know, looking for nervous behavior or the wrong answers to a few basic security questions which has always worked for El-Al), and any other weapons are limited in their usefulness now that cockpit doors are secured and passengers know that "shut up and behave" no longer results in a safe landing in Cuba.
ID, matching or otherwise, doesn't matter. Most (all?) of the 9/11 hijackers had valid ID. The No-Fly list is a bloated joke. The only thing ID does is ensure that the airlines control the tickets more carefully.
Made-up crisis averted by more expensive technology that lines the pockets of some lobbyist. Woot!
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There doesn't seem to be any valid security reason to show ID at all before flying, much less proving that your ID and boarding pass match, any more than there is when you take a bus, ferry, subway, or train.
Exactly right - This isn't Soviet Russia. I can see needing to present a passport at check-in for International flights, but for domestic flights? No ID should be required to fly within the USA (or my country, Canada).
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In Europe it seems to vary by airline for intra-Schengen flights. Some ask for ID, others don't. Honestly I bet the ones who check ID are more worried about you selling tickets, cutting down on their margins, than they are about terrorism.
Re:ID is irrelevant (Score:5, Informative)
Are you saying that you guys *don't* have to show your ID and boarding pass again at the departure gate immediately before boarding the plane?
It's funny (and not widely known), but you actually didn't need a photo ID to fly domestically in the U.S. until maybe the past couple years. For quite a few years after 9/11, you could just say "Oh, I forgot it," and they'd stick you in an alternate line that usually got you through security faster (though often with an extra patdown).
Technically, there was a legal principle that you had a right to travel freely within the U.S. without having to present "papers" (a la Nazi Germany). People who "forgot" their IDs were usually fine, but the TSA started harassing those who just refused to show ID.
Around four years ago, it started to get harder -- they'd ask for any sort of ID even without a photo: credit card, whatever, and then they'd make mysterious phone calls and generally let you through.
But then around the time of the nude scanner crap, the TSA finally decided it was just going to ignore people's right to free travel and just officially admit that we've descended into the likes of Nazi Germany if we want to travel any distance within the U.S.
For all the harassment that has been shown to people by the TSA, most people are shocked that for about 8-9 years after 9/11, you still didn't even need ID to get on a domestic flight.
Re:ID is irrelevant (Score:4)
but needing to wave a piece of ID that you'd need with you to get in a bar is suddenly unreasonable because it's being done somewhere else?
Uh... yes? How does the fact that it's being done in one place mean that it's okay in another place? This doesn't even take the reason you have to show ID in bars into account (which in itself could be idiotic). The reason could not apply at all to another place, so it might just be inconveniencing people. Using this reasoning, we could force people to show IDs when they went anywhere merely because that's how it's done at bars, but that would be a waste of time.
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Resources misspent (Score:5, Insightful)
Catching up with the rest of the world (Score:2, Informative)
Without an organisation like the TSA the rest of the world is practicing that for decades. Your name is checked against an ID when checking in. Before entering the departure area your ID is checked again against the boarding pass and your face, takes split seconds only. When going international that happens again at immigration and finally when you try to board the boarding pass is checked against the loading list and your ID. Nothing causes any queues.
Kind of strange that this practice seems to be new in t
Why does it matter? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why does it matter? (Score:5, Funny)
Ah, you see, they can't really verify that you aren't carrying anything dangerous. So, instead, they try to keep people with a long history of suicide bombings off the plane. I mean, if they've blown themselves up on 4 of their last 5 trips, there's a good chance that they will do it again.
It's not so hard to understand. You just have to start thinking like the TSA.
It happens (Score:3)
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The TSA doesn't exist to protect the people waiting in lines. It exists to protect the buildings of financial and governmental institutions.
Boardibng pass are WORTHLESS (Score:3)
WTF.... how is that even possible? (Score:2)
OK, I've not flown to the US in a few years.
But every boarding pass I've seen lately has a barcode on it which identifies the passenger and their flight. How difficult would it be to store the date and time of their flight and have the scanner flash up a big red error message if they try using a boarding pass for:
- A flight that's already left.
- A flight that's not leaving today.
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About 47 times as difficult as it is to Google "barcode generator" and print out a new piece of paper with a new flight number barcode on it.
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You mean the barcode isn't just a serial number for use with a database lookup?!
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Boarding pass contains that info printed, and your ticket number or so as bar code for machine checks.
Good luck guessing someone else's ticket number, and boarding a flight in their place.
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Why are you letting felons register to vote? And how would an ID requirement stop them? Do they get special passports that say "felon" on the cover?