Secure Flight Changes - Effects on Flying While Dressed

[SamathaCD]

I just read that as of this month, the TSA (ie: Airport Security) here in the US, have started collecting the gender and birthdate of people traveling on airlines. Has anyone here traveled by air in the US since August 15 while dressed? Any change in the status quo?

-Samatha

[joann07]

As long as your ticket information matches what's on your ID, you can go about your trip.

Hugs!

[SamathaCD]

So why I'm asking is because they now check age and gender on your ID.

[MichelleP]

Hi Samantha,

No worries. Like Joann says, if the name on your passport or ID match your ticket - you are golden. Whether you are presenting en femme or in drab makes no difference. They will record the gender and birthday off your ID. Frankly I'm surprised they are doing that but nothing surprises me with the TSA anymore. Oooh don't get me started......

Michelle

[Schatten Lupus]

I think it's rather dumb. It's an attempt to fix the failing no fly list, so hopefully fewer innocent people won't be denied entry on a flight. Personally, I would think that someone's SSN would be more secure than DOB and gender.
I don't like flying anyways, so oh well.

[sandra-leigh]

So why I'm asking is because they now check age and gender on your ID.

Nominally to reduce the rate of false-positive matches on the terrorism watch list.

Actual reason? I don't know... I stopped discounting conspiracy theories when the government of my country made it clear that they were going to implement security cameras and they were going to implement internet monitoring, both despite considerable opposition; and that they were going to require the records be kept for even longer than the police had asked for, bluntly ignoring what the Privacy Commission thought on the subject.

(The Privacy Commission in Canada is, on the whole, pretty good at identifying trends and laws and regulations that are likely to damage traditional privacy. Unfortunately, our present government seldom cares what the Privacy Commission thinks, and has blithely implemented anti-privacy laws that contain provisions that are directly contrary to important parts of their election platform.)


By the way, if you are concerned about the letter of the regulations for TSA, then if you are flying en femme, you will take out your breast forms, put them in one of those clear plastic bags, show them to security (having them x-rayed), and then you can put them back in on the other side. The TSA regulations explicitly permit breast forms for medical or cosmetic reasons, but only if they go through the security check. I don't recall what the penalty could be in theory for wearing the forms through the security procedure... I haven't flown to/from the USA since they specifically approved breast forms, and Transport Canada's procedures are a little different.



Personally, I would think that someone's SSN would be more secure than DOB and gender.


No, definitely not. There has been repeated testimony through congress and in senate committees that SSN are completely insecure. There was an item within the last couple of months in Risks Digest about a study that showed that given a few basic facts about you (facts that are part of the public record), your SSN is predictable except for the final digit better than 95% of the time, and with access to a few public records, even the last digit was predictable 80-ish percent of the time.

Remember, the USA is a country in which many states mandate that your driver's license number and state ID number be the same as your SSN, a country in which some states had to fight hard to be permitted to use a distinct identifier (other than SSN) for the state or driver's # (fought for person privacy and security reasons) -- and a country in which it is considered routine to require giving your SSN in order to sign up for the corner gas-station movie rental program.

If you live in the USA, then anyone who knows even some very elementary facts about you, can find out your SSN for $5 from web sites that specialize in that service. For example, one such site automatically cross-correlates the phone book and voting lists and municipal tax records (all public records), and makes basic information available completely free; you pay if you want them to mouse into the credit databases and produce a credit report on the person. I am not reporting about that site as "hearsay": I stumbled across it myself when someone with the same last name as me requested that I added them as a Skype contact, and I wanted to cross-check to see if it was likely an accidental match or if it might be one of my US relatives.

[SamathaCD]

Glad to see that nothing has changed for people wanting to dressed while flying. As for the TSA in general. I used to think we had it bad, but then remember that at least we're not suffering as bad as in the UK with it's emphasis on cameras everywhere and internet logging. So I guess privacy is something that is just slowly eroding away for all of us?

-Samatha