The Department of Homeland Security is extending its photography of travelers at US border crossings, ports, and international airports from foreign nationals to US citizens entering and leaving our own country. On January 5, 2004, under an “interim final rule” for the “US-VISIT” program effective the same day it was published in the Federal Register, […]
A three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit US Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in Denver yesterday on the lawsuit brought by “Freedom Flyer” Phil Mocek against the TSA checkpoint staff and Albuquerque police responsible for falsely arresting him and trying to delete his audio and video recordings in retaliation for his trying to exercise […]
John Brennan, the “Naked American Hero” who took off all his clothes at a TSA checkpoint at the Portland, Oregon airport, will finally have his day in a Federal court more than three years later. Mr. Brennan was (falsely) arrested by Portland city police, acting at the behest of the TSA checkpoint staff, on April […]
Citing our research and analysis on NSA surveillance of travelers as part of the basis for their recommendations, an organization of veterans of US intelligence agencies has called for curbs on mass surveillance of innocent individuals, in order to “preserve privacy and increase security”. These recommendations to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) […]
For only the second time, a would-be traveler has been given offical notice by the US government that they are not on the US “No Fly” list. Just weeks before a scheduled March hearing in a Federal lawsuit brought by US citizen Jamal Tarhuni challenging his repeatedly having been prevented from boarding commercial airline flights, […]
A Federal civil rights lawsuit recently filed in Philadephia describes a pattern of facts that combine the worst aspects of several previous incidents of TSA and local police collaboration in mistreatment of insufficiently subservient travelers. Roger Vanderklok was falsely arrested at a TSA checkpoint at the PHL airport on January 26, 2013, “Because a TSA […]
Under color of a vestigial provision of Federal law related to an airline passenger profiling program that was discontinued more than four years ago, and applying the name of that program (and attempting to apply the same legal mandate) to an entirely new scheme, the TSA is adding a new, additional layer of passenger profiling […]
The U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that under U.S. law, once you have paid for a hotel room, your room is your home and your castle. You are entitled to the same protection against unwanted intrusions in a hotel room as you would be in the same room if you owned it outright as a […]
[Excerpt from DHS “TECS” travel history log showing API data extracted from the reservation for a passenger on Amtrak (carrier code 2V) train 69 from Penn Station, New York (NYP) to Montreal (MTR). “QYRSLT” redacted by DHS (at left on second line from bottom) is result of pre-crime risk score query to DHS profiling system. […]
We talked at length with Watchdog investigative reporter Dave Lieber for his column in today’s Dallas Morning News: Travelers, say bon voyage to privacy. Lieber hits the nail on the head by calling out how few travelers realize that the U.S. government is keeping a permanent file of complete mirror copies of their reservations: Did […]