Airlines To Begin Asking Passengers For More Information

washingtonpost.com:

U.S. airlines on Saturday will begin asking travelers to provide their birth date and sex for the first time under a new aviation security requirement, federal officials said Wednesday.

The change comes as the Department of Homeland Security takes over responsibility for checking airline passenger names against government watch lists. The additional personal information, which airlines will forward to the Transportation Security Administration, is expected to cut down on cases of mistaken identity, in which people with names similar to those on terrorist watch lists are erroneously barred or delayed from flights.

Read the whole story: washingtonpost.com

Comments

[JNarragansett]

According to the washington post piece, you won't be denied travel if you refuse to grant this information only be pushed to a secondary screening. If enough people refuse to give this information, they will have to take notice. Likewise, if we as individuals start to threaten the airlines with the possibility that they will no longer travel by air we could actually turn the airlines into a privacy advocacy group opposed to making this mandatory so that they can protect their bottom line. (Hat tip to Jim Harper who wrote this first)

[BobSF94117]

U.S. airlines on Saturday will begin asking travelers to provide their birth date and sex for the first time

Hey, I'm all for airline security and I have no problem providing my birth date, but I'm not going to provide sex to a TSA agent unless I get to choose which one...

[onalimb]

This info is on our drivers license which they ask for anyway.

[jalex26000]

the TSA and the department of "homeland security" (sounds nice and hitlerian, doesnt it) should be scrapped. the only "terrorists" around are the ones the US government creates, the US government, CIA, and pentagon created al qaeda and the taliban. now the US citizenry has to submit to a bunch of screening? Why do we have to lose our God given, human rights? it isnt because of terrorism, folks.

the TSA and homeland security are relics of the bush administrations 4th reich and should be dismantled along with their wars and anyone in congress, the pentagon, and CIA that went along with them.

[1dogs2]

How and when did the airlines reduce their "no fly" list to 2500 and "selected" list to 16,000? The last I heard there were close to 1,000,000 names on the list.

[WuodGem]

Travel by greyhound. Its not a big hustle

[KIVPossum]

Ah, people were begining to relax and settle in with the post 9/11 security measures. Now we have to add in a bit to keep the fear factor racheted up.

[miamia]

Next you will have to provide your SSN...

[october2009]

I wonder now that our congress people won't buy those $500 million jets if they'll fly commercial like everyone else?

Maybe once we force our representatives to fly commercial, they'll abolish all those stupid TSA laws that have all of us take off our shoes, our belts, and throw away our liquids...

These laws are ridiculous and totally useless.

[Decipherer]

Where were you when President Cheeney and his Sock Puppet were jamming these rules down our throats?

And woe be to anyone who was going to stand in their way!

Whatever happened to Sock Puppet's declaration that "they hate us for our freedom?"

Get real. Also.

[october2009]

I was just as angry as I am today... It's a big planet... Chances are we never crossed paths.

[SolarArray]

Hilarious. I'll not be telling them anything.

[Aabby]

its on your ID

[SolarArray]

Right, so anything else they ask, I'll tell them to go have a picnic. The TSA are like the NRA, a bunch of scared, low IQ republican wannabees.

[FrogLips]

Why are you flying? The airlines could not care less about your needs or comfort. So drive and save the grief.

[squander123]

Not so easy to drive across the Altantic (or any other ocean)!

[dzent1]

Just politely decline on flights inside the United States. There is NO law that requires you to give them that information, just one of their bs "regulations". The regulation may require the slob to ask, but there ain't any reason you have to give them an answer. They may try to intimidate you into it, but it's WAY past time to put these guys back in check, so just decline.

[newtom]

Good luck with that one.

[yappnmutt]

if i claim i am female will i get a girl in uniform to strip search and fondle me? oh boy.

[Decipherer]

Guess you don't travel much, because if you actually saw these TSA people, I don't think you'd be so anxious to get anywhere near them.

[newtom]

WORD!!!

[Grannysue]

What now? Your blood type, name of your first born, I mean why not just make everyone fill out a questionnaire and then march through the lines naked, I'm all for safety but the airlines are getting ridiculous.

[joyfulworld]

the naked part...hmmmm. They would have to heat the planes though.

[RTIII]

...Some of the planes would be very hot already - maybe even _smokin'!_
.

[Peacein09]

First, the data collectors make a whole lot of people miserable as they go though long security lines in order to fly from one place to another. Then they offer you an easy pass as long as you give them that highly desirable data protected under privacy law. Second, the data collectors pull aside people like Ted Kennedy and radio talk show hosts (on the left side of the dial) based on a supposed match to some criminal or terrorist. Then, they demand you "voluntarily" give up even more of your private identity data to make sure that they don't mistake you for a terrorist. This is our government. We need to get some control over the data collectors, whoever they are, and make sure that personal data given so we can travel is used only for travel at the time you travel and is not stored in some database used for other purposes without our consent.