Screening us softly
The Transportation Security Administration says it doesn’t use racial profiling at airports.
That’s why security personnel selected my well-dressed, American-sounding, light brown-skinned male friend at every security checkpoint as we traveled last semester. He was just lucky No. 10 every time.
By developing the second Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS II), the boys upstairs will upgrade the airport security system, as well as avoid those annoying profiling charges.
Yes, the government has found a new way to protect us in the world of aviation. Except this time, it isn’t waving its pet project under our noses.
CAPPS II, a massive network of supercomputers, would screen every passenger’s background for clues about violent designs, The Washington Post reported Sept. 4.
Since TSA formed in November, officials have toiled countless hours and spent millions on a quest for better passenger screening.
The current CAPPS analyzes passenger data for certain key characteristics indicating a possible security threat. These include whether the passenger paid in cash or bought a one-way ticket. TSA fears knowledge of the system has already decreased its effectiveness, and has tried to prevent leaks on the new project – hence its avoidance of the public eye.
In addition to CAPPS, the government currently employs confiscating toenail clippers, frisking anyone from grandmothers to senators and stationing heavily armed National Guard troops in terminals. These visible security measures are justifiable and expected.
We all feel safer when guards with big guns are nearby.
The debate over whether passenger profiling, referred to by critics as race- or ethnicity-based, has been fanned in front of TV cameras. Determining whether an Arab male is “closely tied” to his community through travel documents and speech patterns is perfectly justifiable, supporters say. Critics say it focuses too much on ethnicity, that terrorists without brown skin – the Timothy McVeighs and John Walker Lindhs of the world – would slip right past security personnel. Supporters say every rule has an exception.
But we do want to be safe, right?
Authorities presently claim to profile people by their actions rather than race. Someone who appears nervous or tense about a flight will raise more flags than a young man with a name and accent that correlate with Middle Eastern origins. Tell that to my friend and countless others chosen for frisking at every gate.
Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta has vehemently denied using ethnicity-based profiling in airports. He has perfect reason to object to the practice. His family was interned during World War II because of their Japanese ancestry.
So TSA has found a new and improved method, a more politically correct manner in which to separate the wolves from the lambs.
In March, TSA held a competition to find the best technology for CAPPS II and awarded grants to four finalists, allowing them to further develop their ideas.
Risk-detection specialist HNC Software received $ 551,001 – the largest grant. HNC works for credit card issuers, telephone companies and insurers, as well as other companies. Those others have access to seating records of virtually every U.S. airline passenger or that collect information like land records, car ownership, projected income, magazine subscriptions and telephone numbers.
HNC would compile this information through its neural networks, connecting subtle facts together, identifying and ranking high-risk passengers for airline attendants and security screeners.
Where would your magazine subscriptions place you on a flight full of people with similar projected income and personal assets?
Behind HNC with a $ 469,179 grant was Lockheed Martin Corp. The Post says it’s not clear what kind of system the military vendor is proposing, but it is working with Systems Research & Development (SRD), which has received funding from In-Q-Tel Inc., the CIA venture capital arm.
SRD uses a system called Non-Obvious Relationship Awareness to find links among people and undermine attempts to use fake names or evade security. Through the same process, SRD has helped Las Vegas casino companies uncover card counters and other cheaters.
It should be pointed out that the government, not airlines, will control CAPPS II. The government won’t let private information fall into corporate hands. It will construct this web of information, protecting the innocent, ensnaring the suspicious.
TSA must tell the public about its plans. We, the people, have every right to be protected. We also have the right to know about how our personal information is used. Our civil liberties are at stake. No one wants the check-in attendant knowing about his credit history and Hustler subscription.
But, as Mineta told The Washington Post, “What is the government’s responsibility to the citizens? It’s really to protect them. That’s what we’re trying to do here,” he said.
And we all want to be protected.
