More airline "security". Great!
Aug. 11th, 2009 05:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
missroseroseSo my Alaska Airlines newsletter is telling me that the TSA is instituting a new program where they require your full legal name, date of birth, and gender when purchasing a ticket.
On the one hand, they're a government agency, and it's not like they couldn't track down that information anyway if they really wanted to. But by the same token, I'm fully aware of how much information (read: everything) the right person can track down with just your legal name and date of birth, and the idea of having databases full of this information for thousands of people in the hands of the TSA, an agency I find only marginally competent at best, doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence. And their claimed benefits to this program are all so vague as to completely fail to convince me that the end result will actually do any good. (Not to mention that the airlines themselves will also have said information, and I somehow doubt their privacy measures are as stringent as the government's...)
I think what frustrates me the most is that there's really nothing I can do about it; the only way to circumvent TSA's "security" procedures is to either [a] buy your own plane or [b] refuse to fly. I live in a place where the latter is unrealistic, and the former is obviously unlikely, so I don't think I'm going to have any choice but to pony up more personal information the next time I want to get out of town. Sigh.
...You know what? That's it. From now on, I'm going to fly TARDIS - sure, the company's a bit odd, and it doesn't always arrive in the place or time you're intending to go, but last I heard the owner wasn't remotely interested in rooting through your luggage or collecting your personal information. And the results are usually far more entertaining than your average commercial flight.
On the one hand, they're a government agency, and it's not like they couldn't track down that information anyway if they really wanted to. But by the same token, I'm fully aware of how much information (read: everything) the right person can track down with just your legal name and date of birth, and the idea of having databases full of this information for thousands of people in the hands of the TSA, an agency I find only marginally competent at best, doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence. And their claimed benefits to this program are all so vague as to completely fail to convince me that the end result will actually do any good. (Not to mention that the airlines themselves will also have said information, and I somehow doubt their privacy measures are as stringent as the government's...)
I think what frustrates me the most is that there's really nothing I can do about it; the only way to circumvent TSA's "security" procedures is to either [a] buy your own plane or [b] refuse to fly. I live in a place where the latter is unrealistic, and the former is obviously unlikely, so I don't think I'm going to have any choice but to pony up more personal information the next time I want to get out of town. Sigh.
...You know what? That's it. From now on, I'm going to fly TARDIS - sure, the company's a bit odd, and it doesn't always arrive in the place or time you're intending to go, but last I heard the owner wasn't remotely interested in rooting through your luggage or collecting your personal information. And the results are usually far more entertaining than your average commercial flight.
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no subject
Date: 2009-08-12 02:03 am (UTC)And what would they do in the case of genderqueer people, like transgender or intersexed? Refuse them tickets?
no subject
Date: 2009-08-12 02:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-12 05:16 am (UTC)Honestly, I've wondered for some time (since I was young actually) why this wasn't already done by the airlines - the person collecting this ticket at the gate should be a late-50s guy, for instance, and if Terry Jones happens to show up looking like a 19-year-old college hottie with her boyfriend in tow and giggling incessantly, something might be wrong. I stopped wondering when self-check became the norm. Wrong move too late.
That said, it would be almost impossible for you to prevent the desk agent from collecting this information (and more!) at the desk, or even a casual observation by someone sitting in a terminal or a camera on a kiosk...
personally? Train is preferred unless I'm really short on time. They're also more chill about a LOT of things.
Or... where you're at... you can see the day where a big boat is coming your way.