$79.95 + Iris Scans + Fingerprints = Registered Flyer!

A brief comment on the news last night ...

TSA announced that a registered flyer program was cleared for implementation nationwide June 20, 2006. I did a bit of research to learn more.

For just $79.95 per year you too can submit your fingerprints and iris scans to a private company for the privilege of being whisked through a private line for "registered" flyers. Does that give anyone else the heebie-jeebies???

More ...

From the Honolulu Advisor:

Transportation Security Administration chief Kip Hawley announced the start date yesterday at a congressional hearing. The Registered Traveler program will allow people who passed a background check to go through checkpoints quicker. Participants must pay a fee, go through a records check for criminal warrants, and provide a fingerprint and eye scan. They'll be checked against databases of known terrorists....

The program isn't welcomed by all. The American Civil Liberties Union maintains that the program is forcing participation because travelers will face "exponentially longer" lines if they aren't Registered Travelers, said ACLU lawyer Tim Sparapani. He said the ACLU also objects to travelers surrendering "their most private and personal information" to a government database....

Registered Travelers will need to give their home phone number and recent addresses. The digital images of their fingerprints and irises will be stored in their Registered Traveler card to verify their identity.

So then I googled around to discover who was actually going to implement this system. Here in Indianapolis, the airport authority recently voted to use a company called Verified Identity Pass Inc.. On their website they crow about registering their 10,000th user in the pilot program at the Orlando airport.

In an apparent attempt to ease our minds, this is what they have to say on their website:

Travelers who volunteer to participate in Clear are required to complete an online application, provide biometric data (fingerprint and iris images) and pass a security threat assessment by the TSA. Once approved, the traveler's biometric information is stored on a Clear Card. When approaching the security checkpoint a member presents his or her card for verification at the designated Clear Lane to receive expedited passage through the security screening process....

Verified ID emphasizes privacy and does not track member's movements. The company does not share or sell information to any third parties. The Clear Privacy Policy is available on its website, www.flyclear.com. Clear's privacy practices and controls are audited regularly by an outside, independent privacy auditor. Verified ID offers members an identity theft warranty that will protect members in the unlikely event that their identity is compromised by the program.

With all the travelers on the secretive "no fly lists" (who can't seem to get their names off of the list or get information about why they are on the lists), who in the world would want to actually be fingerprinted and have iris scans for the privilege of moving through the security line a little faster?

And what about businesses who refuse to hire people who are unwilling to submit this sensitive data to a private company?

This is supposed to make us safer?

Is it just me, or does this just send shivers down your spine?

•  Everybody should be screened every time

  they wish to fly on an airliner.

   

  by SingleVoter on Sat Jan 21, 2006 at 06:59:38 AM PDT

•  I fly through Orlando Airport all the time

  and I don't care how long the lines get, I'm not giving George Bush my biometric info.

  The people in this country have lost their minds. And the final insult to this stupid idea -- you have to pay to give it to them!!

  Ever see "Minority Report." One day, you'll walk into a store, they'll scan your eyes, and all the advertisements in the store will call you by name and follow your movements -- even after you've left the store. They'll scan your eyes as you walk onto the subway. They'll scan your eyes when you walk into a public building. You get the idea.

  They will follow you everywhere. And this is how it starts.

  by Naturegal on Sat Jan 21, 2006 at 07:03:30 AM PDT

•  I know it's bad elsewhere...

  but here in Orlando, I have never seen a line that would be long enuogh to make me think "hmm, this is a long line" for anything other than a snack bar.

  Maybe they should try implementing it in friggin' Midway, or O'Hare. Or, hell, if they want to stay in Florida, Tampa International. Something, where like 40 bajilion people go through every hour. The less I have to deal with people that would sacrifice this much personal information for a spectre of security and a "maybe" promise of speed, the better. The last thing I ever want to do is be stuck in a damn long airplane line (Ever been in a line at Heathrow? How about Frankfurt? Those are some damn long lines.) listening to some douchebag sing their praises of Bush. Or even worse, listen to a couple of grade-A-fucktards backslap each other over their support for the piece of shit.

  I'm just afraid I'd cause some serious jaw damage.

   

  by BullitNutz on Sat Jan 21, 2006 at 07:59:56 AM PDT

•  Over my cold dead finger

  I get the chip.
  You get to give me my mandatory bird flu shot.
  You get my fingerprints.
  You get my freedom.

  Over my cold dead fingers.

  by Lasthorseman on Sat Jan 21, 2006 at 08:11:25 AM PDT

•  Does this mean the terrorists have won?

  If this program gains widespread acceptance it will be because people who "have nothing to hide" are willing to trade their privacy for the convenience of avoiding long lines at airport security.

  Yet these lines are themselves artificially created hassles designed to give us an illusion of safety.

  So, let me get this straight ... government imposed security measures that give us an illusion of safety creating hassles that encourage us to give up civil liberties in order to avoid dealing with the government imposed security measures.

  ARGHHH!

  by annan on Sat Jan 21, 2006 at 08:39:30 AM PDT