Ugh what a constant sad reminder of America becoming cowards & letting a new police state loser-dom emerge after September 11th. A sad sorry institution which will always only ever demand more, will further perpetrate demands against the individual, and never ever face real meaningful pushback against their infinite hunger to intrude.<p>Shitty shitty embarrassing part of American history, like the whole sad "homeland security" complex which has done nothing, is nothing, protects nothing, but ever encroaches.
> you do have the right to opt of facial imaging at TSA checkpoints<p>I’m curious as to whether the author has put any thought into how practical this advice is. My plane takes off in an hour. What does this “right” entail?<p>1. Not going to jail for refusing to get a biometric scan, or<p>2. Getting into a long argument with TSA where I point to the specific subsections that say I don’t need to comply with having my picture taken again, lose the argument and don’t go to jail, or<p>3. Part 2 but I win the argument and don’t go to jail<p>My point isn’t that rights aren’t important. My point is that it’s silly to expect normal people to be able to articulate the law in the heat of the moment. These things need to be ironed out long before then, because my revealed preference of not wanting to miss my connection is frankly a lot more important than my revealed preference of not having my picture taken.
On the plus side this will at least further discourage use of planes for domestic travel...<p>We really need development of HSR across the US. Maybe if they make flying miserable enough we can actually make some progress on that front.
From my very core I take exception to this kind of thing. And this is one reason why tools like the OMB control numbers are important.<p>From a purely pragmatic, devil’s advocate perspective though, I did arguably give up my “facial privacy” the moment I mailed off a passport application. Now, that’s no reason to refine the government’s corpus of facial recognition data for me. At the same time if my face is already in a federal database does it make sense to not embrace the potential for increased throughout at airport security?
Last time I checked, getting on an airplane was a private transaction between the airline and me. Either party can back out- the airline can refuse you as a customer, and I can no show. As far as I’m concerned, this isn’t so much about TSA per se, but me using the services of a for-profit company. If they want to demand that I do something, and I still want to use their services after stated , then I do the “something.” I don’t feel my rights are being trampled on here, at all. It’s really hard to go to Japan in a car.<p>The TSA, although a federal government institution, ultimately will follow the money. If enough people no show because of these requirements, I would bet they’d become different. I, for one, don’t mind. Call me a sheeple, call me whatever you want, but sashimi is better there than here, sooooo……<p>My point: you DO have rights. You also have choice. What you do with those rights and choices… Is up to you.I am in violent agreement with janalsncm
It would be great if they could figure out a way to stop air travel crime that's fast, and stop doing the parts that take forever like taking off your shoes or removing things from your backpack. Go ahead, scan my face, biometric everything, spy on every square inch of the airport and the luggage, just hurry up.
You already give them a photo id when you go through the security line. This can already be correlated with the numerous cameras filming you go through the line. This privacy train left the station long ago. If TSA wants their own pic to feel important then whatever.
Btw, you should skip, hobble on a crutch, take a wheelchair, or do a zombie sway in an airport rather than walk normally because your gain contains a biometric signature.