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Thursday, 2 February 2017
quote [ After decades of small improvements, innovative new technology is poised to make painful security checkpoints more efficient and effective ]
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Taleweaver said @ 4:52pm GMT on 2nd February
{i}Highly sophisticated airport technology would read your face and your vitals and scan your bag seamlessly, all without sacrificing safety — the technology would alert authorities to suspicious travelers who need to be pulled aside.{/i}
At the same time, data about your whereabouts, your current blood pressure, your body temperature, the number of electronic devices you're carrying (and if one of these devices might be classified as a sex toy) will be stored in a database you cannot check while, at the same time, you have no control over which institutions get access to it. Frequent flyer with regularly high blood pressure? Your insurance premiums might be raised as your insurance company reevaluates the risks it's taking with you.
Oh, and of course you have no idea what actually looks "suspicious" to whatever algorithm is checking on you. Maybe you look just a little Iranian (or, worse, Mexican) to the system, and you get singled out, and you can bet the actual people who pull you aside will treat you with an amount of caution that borders on hysteria - the computer already said you may be trouble, so you can be sure they will try and {i}find{/i} that trouble on you.
Never trust the term "efficient and effective" when it refers to methods of singling out undesirable people. More often than not, it means "err on the side of caution".
Taleweaver said @ 4:53pm GMT on 2nd February
Highly sophisticated airport technology would read your face and your vitals and scan your bag seamlessly, all without sacrificing safety — the technology would alert authorities to suspicious travelers who need to be pulled aside.
At the same time, data about your whereabouts, your current blood pressure, your body temperature, the number of electronic devices you're carrying (and if one of these devices might be classified as a sex toy) will be stored in a database you cannot check while, at the same time, you have no control over which institutions get access to it. Frequent flyer with regularly high blood pressure? Your insurance premiums might be raised as your insurance company reevaluates the risks it's taking with you.
Oh, and of course you have no idea what actually looks "suspicious" to whatever algorithm is checking on you. Maybe you look just a little Iranian (or, worse, Mexican) to the system, and you get singled out, and you can bet the actual people who pull you aside will treat you with an amount of caution that borders on hysteria - the computer already said you may be trouble, so you can be sure they will try and {i}find{/i} that trouble on you.
Never trust the term "efficient and effective" when it refers to methods of singling out undesirable people. More often than not, it means "err on the side of caution".
<-- Entry / Current Comment
Taleweaver said @ 4:52pm GMT on 2nd February
Highly sophisticated airport technology would read your face and your vitals and scan your bag seamlessly, all without sacrificing safety — the technology would alert authorities to suspicious travelers who need to be pulled aside.
At the same time, data about your whereabouts, your current blood pressure, your body temperature, the number of electronic devices you're carrying (and if one of these devices might be classified as a sex toy) will be stored in a database you cannot check while, at the same time, you have no control over which institutions get access to it. Frequent flyer with regularly high blood pressure? Your insurance premiums might be raised as your insurance company reevaluates the risks it's taking with you.
Oh, and of course you have no idea what actually looks "suspicious" to whatever algorithm is checking on you. Maybe you look just a little Iranian (or, worse, Mexican) to the system, and you get singled out, and you can bet the actual people who pull you aside will treat you with an amount of caution that borders on hysteria - the computer already said you may be trouble, so you can be sure they will try and {i}find{/i} that trouble on you.
Never trust the term "efficient and effective" when it refers to methods of singling out undesirable people. More often than not, it means "err on the side of caution".
