Airlines' Ancient System Just Keeps Snaring Innocent Travelers

[Phaedrus]

The SF Chronicle reports that airline res systems use an ancient name
indexing system that guarantees masses of false positives.

Story here.

Also fun to note that even the TSA is critical of the current system. Too bad that their solution is the bizarre and invasive CAPPS II system, a beta software so offensive it has led to a boycott of Delta Airlines.

Many airlines rely on name-searching software derived from "Soundex," a
120- year-old indexing system first used in the 1880 U.S. census. It was
designed to help census clerks quickly index and retrieve sound-alike
surnames with different spellings -- like "Rogers" and "Rodgers" or
"Somers" and "Summers" -- that would be scattered in an alphabetical list.

Soundex gives each name a key using its first letter and dropping the
vowels and giving number codes to similar-sounding vowels (like "S" and
"C"). The system gives the same code, L350, for "Laden" and all
similar-sounding names: Lydon, Lawton, and Leedham."

Soundex is well known these days to genealogical hobbyists. Here is an
article laying out the Soundex coding scheme.

And here is a Web-based Soundex calculator to see what your last name will get you into. I entered Moussaoui and found that it gets lumped in with forty other fairly common last names, which might spell trouble for designer Bob Mackey and ficitious trucker BJ McKay (no word as of yet on whether or not his best friend Bear is implicated in the investigation.)


Phaedrus

 

[Phaedrus]

A related follow-up to this post: the CAPS II program has been sidelined by the federal government, citing concerns for privacy.

Good news, to say the least.


Phaedrus

 

[Phaedrus]

Bad news never dies.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>
Airlines OK Security Plan

(Associated Press/Wiredhttp://www.wired.com)

WASHINGTON -- The government must adopt specific privacy protections before implementing a plan to use personal information to rank all airline passengers as potential security threats, the trade group for major U.S. airlines says.

The Air Transport Association said it supports the concept of the Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, or CAPPS II, provided the government follows seven "privacy principles." The Associated Press obtained the list of principles Tuesday, a day before they were to be revealed at a House hearing.

The guidelines seek to ensure the Transportation Security Administration collects only personal information pertaining to aviation security, stores it securely and gets rid of it as soon as travel is completed. The airlines also said that passengers must be allowed to see their personal information and correct any errors.

"At the end of the day, the system isn't going to be any good if we can't assure privacy for the flying public's information," ATA President James May said.

The TSA has said it wants to put the program in place this summer. However, that likely will be pushed back because of airlines' reluctance to share passenger records needed to test the plan.

The Bush administration has said if the airlines won't voluntarily turn over the records it will order them to do so.

TSA spokesman Dennis Murphy said the government doesn't plan to store passenger information, except for potential terrorists. He said the issue isn't whether people can see their data but if they can redress errors.

"We have what we believe is an effective way to do it but we don't know it's effective until we test it," he said.

The TSA's program would check information such as a name, address and date of birth against commercial and government databases. Each passenger would be given one of three color-coded ratings.

Suspected terrorists and violent criminals would be designated as red and forbidden to fly. Passengers who raise questions would be classified as yellow and would receive extra security screening. The vast majority would be designated green and allowed through routine screening.

The TSA also wants to use the program to catch violent criminals, which it says is a way to safeguard air passengers. But May said that will take the focus of the program away from the TSA's mandate to prevent terrorism.

Beyond privacy issues, the airlines say there are questions about how the government plans to implement CAPPS II. May said that 70 percent of airline reservations now are made through third parties such as travel agents and computerized reservation systems.

If those third parties don't obtain the required information, then airlines will have to do it at the airport, which will cause delays, he said.

"There must be a concomitant and equal requirement on these folks that they collect the requisite information from the passenger at the time the reservation is made," May said.

The TSA has said all those who book tickets will be required to obtain the passenger data needed for CAPPS II.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

(emphasis added)

The Bush administration has said if the airlines won't voluntarily turn over the records it will order them to do so.

And so the end result of all politics is again demonstrated: obey, or be punished.

He said the issue isn't whether people can see their data but if they can redress errors.

If one cannot see one's data, then one will redress errors by ________ ?

The TSA also wants to use the program to catch violent criminals, which it says is a way to safeguard air passengers.

Yet another so-called "anti-terrorism" measure being implemented outside of its original sphere of use. But it's okay, because it's just for violent criminals and it won't ever be used past that point; only a lying leftist liberal terrorist appeasing sociocommie would think such an absurd thing. You need to get your tinfoil hat adjusted, ****nuts.

The TSA has said all those who book tickets will be required to obtain the passenger data needed for CAPPS II.

Sing it with me:

"I'm a tipster, he's a tipster, she's a tipster, we're all tipsters; wouldn't you like to be a tipster too? Be a tipster, or yoooooou're a bad Amer'can ... Be a tipster or yoooooou're a bad Amer'can ..."


Phaedrus

 

[barman]

As the airlines continue to suffer from lost business, they will hopefully show enough spine to tell the feds NO to such intrusive plans.

Meanwhile, all you so called fiscal conservatives can enjoy seeing your tax dollars going to bail out those airlines which can't show a profit due to how the feds are forcing away would-be customers with intrusive and irrelevant security tactics.

 

[Mr NJ Sports]

The mismanaged airlines were in trouble long before 9/11/01 and they "got lucky" because they used that as an excuse to get the government to help bail them out.