redesigned airport security

[inhumandecency]

I flew out of BWI, where fortune guided me to the new, remodeled security checkpoint. The waiting area was surrounded by gently-lit wall panels, and the retractable barrier ropes were thick and soft-looking. Soothing ambient music was playing. There was a big sign welcoming travelers and explaining that TSA had based this design on comments they'd

Comments

[ewake]

from my reading it seems like a big problem for transsexuals whose genitals don't match their presentation. if there's a pat-down option that can be reasonably taken without looking like you have something to hide, i guess that's one way out.

[inhumandecency]

I'm not sure how it works -- if it's like backscatter x-ray, the other new naked-imaging device, it's designed to show you if there's anything unexpectedly dense (i.e., usually, metal) between a person's clothes and their skin (i.e., concealed). So I don't think someone with unusual genitals would look like they were trying to get away with something, although I can see there's a risk of getting abused by transphobic screeners or outed by clueless ones. Are there other issues you're thinking of?

[griffjon]

My main gripe is that the cost (of even less personal privacy) is not outweighed by any real benefit over current, already-overzealous methods. The whole thing is based on what-ifs and sold using fear over logic. The reality is that anyone could shatter the plastic on their laptop and come up with as deadly of a weapon as a box cutter; and I don't see them banning laptops anytime soon.

[inhumandecency]

I'm never sure how seriously to take that argument. As an analogy, there are attacks that can compromise an SSL connection, but that doesn't mean we don't bother with SSL. We use it anyway because the attacks are hard and most low-level scammers will either not bother or screw it up. So there might be some benefit to security that won't stop the next 9/11, but will stop random 9/11 copycat crimes orchestrated by three disturbed teenagers working out of mom's basement. It also makes life hard for large terrorist groups because the price of getting caught is high -- it will initiate an investigation that might destroy them. It's not like suicide bombers in Israel, where if one gets caught they can just send three more. So even pretty bad security could act as a deterrent. And if they do get through, the chances of successfully completing their plan are probably worse if they're using plastic clubs and glass shards than if they have knives and guns

[griffjon]

that's all orthogonal to the way people are treated during screening... Very true; and I'd like to see a much better watching of the watchers; as the variations between security personnel really irritate me. Being treated as guilty-until-proven-probably-not-a-terrorist at podunk 2-gate San Angelo, where they manually paw through every damned bag every time (I once had a security guard nearly pull a gun on me there due to walking on (after going through security and collecting my bags) because they thought that bag from the guy behind me was mine and looked "suspicious" [1]; versus the generally perfunctory glances at BWI and DCA (I rarely even have to separate out liquids at DCA

[aerieofgrace]

I think the privacy invasion for transsexual folks is significant enough to ban those body scanners.