Dear TSA:<\/p>\n
It’s time and past time for you guys to stop “declining to say” when asked anything about the insane so-called “security” procedures or tools you’ve put into place.<\/p>\n
I know most of your top brass are probably still in the mentality of the cold war, but trust me guys – it doesn’t matter whether you keep the design of your x-ray machines or body scanners or neutron detectors or whatever secret, or whether you put up huge billboards of their internal schematics in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
I’m not being facetious here either – it really doesn’t<\/strong> matter. If the security systems you have put in place are truly well-designed and well-thought-out, then they will work regardless of whether their internal workings is common knowledge or not.<\/p>\n And, since we are still (the last time I checked) a free<\/strong> country (as we like to proclaim ever more loudly, while at the same time we become less and less free), your default reply should ALWAYS be to be totally up-front about security and to provide any details that anyone asks about the internal workings of things.<\/p>\n If you were SERIOUS about security – real security, not just “pretend” security that only serves to “cover your ass” in case something bad happens – you’d welcome the feedback and massive talent pool that being in the public eye could give.<\/p>\n Just a thought, from a concerned citizen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An open letter to the TSA asking them to stop being so secretive – because it’s not helping anybody.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10,17],"tags":[243,19,26,242],"class_list":["post-2885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rants","category-society","tag-dear-tsa","tag-government","tag-security","tag-tsa","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-Kx","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2887,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2010\/01\/13\/dear-tsa-an-idea-for-full-body-scanners\/","url_meta":{"origin":2885,"position":0},"title":"Dear TSA: An Idea for Full-Body Scanners","author":"Keith Survell","date":"January 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"An open letter to the TSA: wouldn't it be nice to just replace all the security nonsense with one quick & easy full-body scan?","rel":"","context":"In "Rants"","block_context":{"text":"Rants","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/rants\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":437,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/03\/28\/tsa-lied-about-protecting-passenger-data\/","url_meta":{"origin":2885,"position":1},"title":"TSA Lied About Protecting Passenger Data","author":"Keith Survell","date":"March 28, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Incompetence. Utter contempt for the citizens of this country, and their rights. ARGH!","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":531,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/06\/08\/schneier-on-security-tsa-abuse-of-power\/","url_meta":{"origin":2885,"position":2},"title":"Schneier on Security: TSA Abuse of Power","author":"Keith Survell","date":"June 8, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Reading this made me cringe. Am I wrong to be worried about this?","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1226,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/07\/24\/tsa-too-much-power-too-little-accountability\/","url_meta":{"origin":2885,"position":3},"title":"TSA – Too much power, too little accountability","author":"Keith Survell","date":"July 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This article from \"Ask the Pilot\" by Patrick Smith is well worth reading. It recounts a story that a pilot had with the TSA people. Let me give you just one little snippet: \"Ma'am, that's an airline knife. It's the knife they give you on the plane.\" You can probably\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "society"","block_context":{"text":"society","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/society\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1324,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/09\/02\/the-tsas-photo-id-rules-are-useless\/","url_meta":{"origin":2885,"position":4},"title":"The TSA’s Photo ID Rules are Useless","author":"Keith Survell","date":"September 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The rules that the TSA has rolled out regarding photo IDs and their requirements for getting onto passenger airplanes are usless. In fact, you could argue that they are worse than useless, since they create a false sense of security - and they cost us a lot of money (both\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1174,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/06\/13\/your-papers-please-part-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":2885,"position":5},"title":"Your Papers, Please (Part 2)","author":"Keith Survell","date":"June 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Via Bruce Schneier's blog - the TSA has a new photo ID requirement: Beginning Saturday, June 21, 2008 passengers that willfully refuse to provide identification at security checkpoint will be denied access to the secure area of airports. This change will apply exclusively to individuals that simply refuse to provide\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}