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Skeptical

By Anonymous

I went to a lunch talk today featuring an alum who's in the Dept of Homeland Security. He spoke about the positives and perils of personal data collection and the Automated Targeting System at airports. Well, he spoke a lot more about the positives than the perils. And when the ATS alerted customs agents to look a little closer at a particular international traveler arriving at Chicago O'Hare, and then that traveler was denied entry to the US and sent back home, and then a few months later that same traveler blew himself up in truck in Iraq (true story) - it's easy to agree that the "false positives" and the privacy concerns are worth it.

But then I think of the people that are wrongly stopped, wrongly questioned, and wrongly denied entry. I can't see it in terms of "marginal costs," I see faces. I see me. Ever since the DCFS investigation, hearing stories of people falsely accused makes me hurt inside. I believe that some "costs of the system" are justified and I think this is probably one of those cases, but it's harder now.

Full post as published by Lag Liv on April 14, 2008 (boomark / email).