tsa

Is Clear a present danger for football fans?

Clear, a program approved by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration that lets frequent fliers bypass airport security lines, is now being used to let football fans bypass the security lines at pro football games.

Deals are kicking off this fall at home games for the San Francisco 49ers, the Atlanta Falcons, and the Denver Broncos.

Clear, the largest of four Registered Traveler programs operating at U.S. airports, isn't run by the TSA. It's a private service of Verified Identity Pass (VIP).

Doesn't it seem like VIP is leveraging its privileged position in airport security--a position … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 789: We like the Moon, don't break it

Veronica's back with us today as we record from the New Media Expo in Las Vegas. We talk about the woes of the modern Web, and specifically Netflix's problems on the back-end. Also there's some news about Windows 7, or at least news about when more news will be coming. And thankfully the IOC backed down on the DMCA takedown notice. That and some more hilarious e-mails.

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 789

Netflix may lose $1.8M to $3.6M in revenue per day over outage http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=9676

10 … Read more

TSA declares some laptop bags 'checkpoint-friendly'

Fliers are asked to dump out their beverages, take off their shoes, and go through a number of other time-eating security procedures at the airport--but at least some travelers may not have to unpack their laptops, the Transportation Security Administration announced Friday.

Starting August 16, travelers will not have to remove laptops from bags that are deemed "checkpoint-friendly." This category includes "butterfly style," "sleeve style," and "trifold style" bags. These styles were chosen after the TSA asked bag manufacturers to design bags that would not obstruct the image of a laptop when … Read more

Missing SFO laptop found--where it went missing

A laptop with information on prescreened travelers, which was reported stolen, has been found, and the incident may be relabeled the case of the misplaced laptop.

Late Monday, the Transportation Security Administration had announced that a laptop containing data on about 33,000 travelers who had applied for a national airport security fast-pass card was believed to have been stolen from a locked office at the San Francisco Airport in late July.

Early Tuesday, however, the computer was found in the same company office from which it was supposedly stolen on July 26, Allison Beer, senior vice president for corporate … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 757: Vista: it's not Stalin

Big thanks to one of our callers today who offers some much-needed perspective on Vista and...well, everything, really. Also, Netflix saves the profiles (yay!), AT&T releases details on iPhone 3G pricing (ouch if you don't get a contract), and Fiji objects to other things named "Fiji." Just like how we object to other things named "Buzz."

Listen now: Download today's podcast Episode 757

Happy Canada Day!

Netflix issues mulligan on profiles, won’t eliminate the feature http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-9980993-36.html http://blog.netflix.com/2008/06/profiles-feature-not-going-away.html

AT&… Read more

Delta testing cell phone-based airline check-in

If you're flying Delta Air Lines out of New York's LaGuardia Airport, you can now flash your cell phone to get onboard. On Tuesday, the airline rolled out a partnership with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to test out a "paperless check-in"--passengers download a boarding pass onto their cell phones and have it scanned by the TSA at the airport's security checkpoint as well as when they board the plane.

Fellow domestic carrier Continental is already testing a similar program.

The speedier check-in is limited to cell phone customers who can access the mobile … Read more

Your papers please: TSA bans ID-less flight

In a major change of policy, the Transportation Security Administration has announced that passengers refusing to show ID will no longer be able to fly. The policy change, announced on Thursday afternoon, will go into force on June 21, and will only affect passengers who refuse to produce ID. Passengers who claim to have lost or forgotten their proof of identity will still be able to fly.

As long as TSA has existed, passengers have been able to fly without showing ID to government agents. Doing so would result in a secondary search (a pat down and hand search of … Read more

Can TSA be trusted not to data discriminate?

The Transportation Security Administration is joining the 21st century. Just 5 years after security experts first outlined methods for faking boarding passes (and 2 years after the FBI raided my home for automating the process), TSA is finally testing out technology to neutralize this security threat. The only problem? The new authenticated boarding passes lay the groundwork for a surveillance state, enforceable all-points-bulletins, and most scary of all, data discrimination.

Can TSA be trusted to do the right thing?

For the last 4 months, Continental Airlines and TSA have been running a pilot project, which permits passengers to pass through security … Read more

TSA admits MacBook Air is a real laptop

You may recall some controversy earlier this week when a mild-mannered air traveler found himself on the wrong side of the X-ray scanner when some TSA agents didn't believe that his MacBook Air was a legitimate laptop.

I'm standing, watching my laptop on the table, listening to security clucking just behind me. "There's no drive," one says. "And no ports on the back. It has a couple of lines where the drive should be," she continues.

Eventually, a younger more technologically hip TSA agent came to his rescue, but the entire incident still … Read more