Note: As with any effective Dictatorship, this time around, the public will not be informed as to which airlines will be implementing the CAPPS II program. Such information will be kept secret from American citizens.
Soon passengers will be receiving one of three “color codings” based on things like who you’re traveling with and where you’re going. (What’s that got to do with your risk? Your guess is as good as mine.)
I wonder if wearing one of John Gilmore‘s “Suspected Terrorist” buttons bumps up your rating a notch? 🙂
Here’s the Washington Post story on it, and a video clip from KRON news in San Francisco.

In the most aggressive — and, some say, invasive — step yet to protect air travelers, the federal government and the airlines will phase in a computer system next year to measure the risk posed by every passenger on every flight in the United States.
The new Transportation Security Administration system seeks to probe deeper into each passenger’s identity than is currently possible, comparing personal information against criminal records and intelligence information. Passengers will be assigned a color code — green, yellow or red — based in part on their city of departure, destination, traveling companions and date of ticket purchase.
Most people will be coded green and sail through. But up to 8 percent of passengers who board the nation’s 26,000 daily flights will be coded “yellow” and will undergo additional screening at the checkpoint, according to people familiar with the program. An estimated 1 to 2 percent will be labeled “red” and will be prohibited from boarding. These passengers also will face police questioning and may be arrested…
The new system, called Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-screening System II (CAPPS II), has sparked so much controversy among both liberal and conservative groups that the TSA has struggled to get it going. Delta Air Lines backed out of a testing program with the agency earlier this year, and now the TSA will not reveal which airlines will participate when it tests a prototype early next year. If all goes as planned, the TSA will begin the new computer screening of some passengers as early as next summer and eventually it will be used for all domestic travelers.
“This system is going to be replete with errors,” said Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s technology and liberty program. “You could be falsely arrested. You could be delayed. You could lose your ability to travel.”

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This is a follow up to my earlier post regarding cellphone numbers being added to 411 lists, which I still think, as it stands, is a really bad idea.
There’s more at stake here than the (I believe, still valid) concern of actually be charged money by your phone company every time you are contacted by a telemarketer, which would also be horrible and unfair to consumers, but isn’t nearly as worrisome as establishing a practice of charging people extra if they don’t want their personal information sold.
If discounts are offered to people that are willing to allow their number to be included in a directory, that’s one thing. But again, it would need to be properly represented to the consumer that they were trading something valuable — their personal information — for a discount.
That said, it’s not only about telemarketers. It’s about privacy. If I want someone to have my cell phone number, I’ll give it to them. Otherwise, they can email me and request it, and if I want to give it to them, I will.
In general, I would rather be emailed than called on the phone — especially from people I’m not expecting.
The way it is now, I have a little control over who calls me on my already too busy telephone. I should not have to pay money to have my number remain unlisted. It is a right, not a privilege, in my opinion.
This is the wrong direction for these kinds of services to go — making people opt-out of having their information made public. They should always have to explicitly opt-in to such services. This is dangerous if giving up one’s personal information in order to participate in a basic communications service, such as cell phones, becomes the exception, and not the rule.
Hope this clarifies my broader privacy concerns surrounding these types of policies.

Commercial interests are gearing up to benefit from making our personal cell phone information to the public.
Soon 411 will be able to sell your cell phone number to make extra money from its service. You’ll have to pay extra if you want to keep your number unlisted.
I think this is horrible news — A directory service for cell phones only makes sense if you have to opt-in to it, not if the burden is on you to not only opt-out of it, but pay for the privilege.
Now we’ll have to pay to be unlisted!
This seems more like a service you should have to pay to be included in, not the other way around.
Cell phone’s are largely “private” lines. If someone wants their business line listed, they can take the time to list it. The average person shouldn’t have to take up their time and valuable resources to make sure they’ve opted out.
Also, one mistake and the average person will have to foot the cost of getting a new phone number, so they can “try again” at protecting their privacy.
Please let me know if anyone knows how this can:
1) be stopped.
2) changed from an “opt-out” policy to an “opt-in” policy where the burden will be placed on the people who want to participate, not the people who want to protect their privacy.
3) be “opted out” of, at NO CHARGE, with confirmation IN WRITING, so a company can be taken to court if a mistake is made, and far enough (like a year) in advance of the roll out that we can no for sure that our privacy will be protected.
4) be made a built-in requirement for customers to be provided with a freely-available opt-out option at the same time they purchase a cell phone to make it as easy has possible to protect their privacy.
Privacy needs to be the default — not the paid-for exception.
Please keep an eye out for developments on this front and let me know about them! Thanks!
Wireless numbers to be added to 411
Large cell phone carriers on board with plan, source says

The centralized database of wireless numbers would be off limits to telemarketers, and consumers would be able to choose whether to have their numbers listed or unlisted, according to people familiar with the process.
Individual carriers would determine whether subscribers would have to pay to be unlisted.
Other privacy options are possible, too.
For example, wireless phone users might choose to be unlisted but willing to receive a short text message, sent through the directory service, from someone trying to contact them.
The nation