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posted by janrinok on Sunday February 12 2017, @09:59PM   Printer-friendly
from the come-fly-the-discriminatory-skies dept.

TechDirt reports

Thanks to FOIA requests (and lawsuits), the ACLU has gathered enough documents to provide a comprehensive report [PDF] on the worthlessness of the TSA's "Behavioral Detection" program. Meant to give the agency a better way of proactively thwarting acts of terrorism, the program instead opts for lazy profiling, dubious readings of behavioral cues, and junk science.

The documents[1] show the evolution of the behavior detection program and make clear the extent to which it is a program of surveillance of unsuspecting travelers based on unreliable indicators. "Behavior detection officers", some of them dressed in plain clothes, scrutinize travelers at airports for over 90 behaviors that the TSA associates with stress, fear, or deception, looking for what the TSA calls signs of "mal-intent". The reliability of these so-called indicators is not supported by the scientific studies in the TSA files. The behavior detection officers may then engage travelers in "casual conversation" that is actually an effort to probe the basis for any purported signs of deception. When the officers think they perceive those behaviors, they follow the travelers, subject them to additional screening, and at times bring in law enforcement officers who can investigate them further.

The TSA has repeatedly claimed that the behavior detection program is grounded in valid science, but the records that the ACLU obtained show that the TSA has in its possession a significant body of research that contradicts those claims.

[1] Duplicate link in TFA.

[Ed. Note: Non mobile link here to source article here.]


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  • (Score: 2) by TheRaven on Monday February 13 2017, @12:33PM

    by TheRaven (270) on Monday February 13 2017, @12:33PM (#466548) Journal

    I only went to the USA once before 9/11, and I don't remember the security much, but on my most recent trip (I got home yesterday), it was vastly better than previously. For one thing, they've turned down the sensitivity on all of their sensors. The milliwave radar used to always flag my hair as suspicious (I wear it in a ponytail and the part where it's tied together is too dense for the machine to penetrate), but this time it didn't at any of the three airports where I went through security. I also forgot to take my eye drops out of my bag at two airports and it wasn't flagged at either of them.

    I've flown a lot in the past 10 or so years and always found the TSA to be polite (and I have been flagged for extra questioning a few times), though US immigration agents are often rude and abusive. About the only differences that I recall from my first trip is that they insist on your removing your shoes now (the UK did that briefly, found it was a waste of time, and stopped) and that they don't let you take a bottle of water through security anymore. The latter is the most annoying. Security theatre has some value - I'd much rather fly with people who feel safe than people prone to panic - but everyone knows that this is a waste of time. Last time I flew, I carried four large LiIon batteries in my hand luggage. I have to have them with me, because the risk of fire/explosion is so high that the FAA won't let me put them in the cargo hold. It's fine to carry these (devices which are basically a bomb plus a circuit that repeatedly says 'don't explode, don't explode!') through security, but a bottle of shampoo or water is treated as a lethal weapon. Of course, no country is going to kill business travel by saying that you can't take a laptop on a flight...

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