MetaFilter posts tagged with Travel and security

What Does DHS Know About You?

chunking express — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:07:15 -0800

What Does DHS Know About You? A lot. The complete (annotated) report. [PDF]

Clearly unprotected

dejah420 — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 11:43:51 -0800

Clear passenger data stolen. A unencrypted laptop with the personal data, including name, address, SSi number, passport number, date of birth, etc. of every one of the 33,000+ users of the the Clear system has been stolen. The Clear system allows travelers who register and pay an annual fee to bypass airport security lines by using a smart card in some airports. TSA has suspended new registrations until Verified Identity Pass, Inc., a subsidiary of GE, figures out how to install PGP. VIP is the only private contractor allowed to register users to the Clear system. Via

Ramak Fazel: 49 State Capitols

homunculus — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 10:25:27 -0800

Odyssey of State Capitols and State Suspicion. "The story behind an exhibition: postcards, designs, photography, travels, history, stamps and law enforcement." [Via BB.]

You and I were/weren't meant to fly....

never used baby shoes — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:48:50 -0800

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is proposing new rules regarding passenger pre-screening both domestically and internationally. Interestingly, this includes flights that overfly the continental US without ever touching the ground. Overflying the Continental United States. This proposed rule defines ``overflying the continental United States' as departing from an airport or location outside the United States, and transiting the airspace of the continental United States en route to another airport or location outside the United States...In this proposed rule, flights ``overflying the continental United States' are a category of ``covered flights' for which TSA would conduct passenger watch list matching in order to protect the airspace over the continental United States and prevent individuals on a watch list from taking control of an aircraft...From the proposed rule. The rule does not cover flights that originate in one country, overfly the US, and land again in the originating country. For example, a flight between Toronto and Vancouver would be exempt. Since Transport Canada has already implemented a no-fly list, ATAC is questioning the purpose of this. Others wonder about different effects on the travel habits of Canadians and Americans.

Someone set up us the bomb

ijoshua — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 08:32:01 -0800

[ConspiracyFilter] Was the alleged "binary liquid explosives" plot actually plausible, in the sense of being capable of producing "mass murder on an unimaginable scale?"

Fear itself

mathowie — Sun, 22 Aug 2004 16:22:20 -0800

Fear Itself: an american journalist wants to put the threat of terrorism into perspective, and elects to ride on a bus line in Jerusalem, the train line through Madrid, and a British Airways flight said to be a bombing target. He comes away with it unscathed but the stories he tells about the history of terror, especially in Israel, is chilling and daily life in some parts of Jerusalem sounds like scenes lifted straight out of Brazil. [via the big K]

Will this technology fly?

orange swan — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 12:29:24 -0800

Would you prefer this to being patted down? A scanner the government is testing for airport screening reveals much more than meets the eye to be comfortable for most passengers. The agency hopes to modify the machines with an electronic fig leaf - programming that fuzzes out sensitive body parts or distorts the body so it does not appear so, well, graphic.

tranquileye — Sun, 03 Nov 2002 05:38:28 -0800

"The first flight we took my wife and I, we were greeted by a ticket agent who cheerfully told us that we had been selected randomly for a special security check. Then it began to happen at every single stop, at every single airport. The random process took on a 100 per cent certitude." Canadian award winning writer Rohinton Mistry cancels his US book tour after being subjected to racial profiling.

MidasMulligan — Mon, 30 Sep 2002 13:33:53 -0800

Student arrested with boxcutter & scissors. But the thing that really boggled my mind was this: "Since February, we've taken more than 25,000 boxcutters from carry-ons and off of passengers. We've taken more than 500 firearms and 215,000 knives," Johnson said." For one thing, I guess I had never realized how much box cutting went on in the US - but the bizarre piece is the guns. A half dozen I can see, but five freakin' hundred? How can that many people - in the post 9/11 world - still be trying to get serious weapony onto airplanes?

jaden — Thu, 29 Aug 2002 09:58:40 -0800

If you've ever flown commercially in the past 16 years, you had to answer two questions about your luggage before receiving your boarding pass. Starting today, they are no longer required since they "never prevented a bombing or hijacking."

beth — Wed, 17 Jul 2002 07:02:28 -0800

Paranoia or prudence? You decide. Seven people from an American Trans Air Chicago to New York flight were questioned by police, then released after a fellow passenger alerted flight attendants when she saw them "passing notes and changing seats". The plane was escorted to La Guardia by F-16's. Does this sound like safeguarding our freedom or are we getting rather creepy here?

yevge — Wed, 12 Dec 2001 18:42:14 -0800

New travel package minimizes the amount of time it takes for you to get from the airport to the beach. Now you can get off the plane, and start swimming and sunbathing in no time! Isn't this amazing?