Air travel restrictions

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Dopedangel

Profiling will probably help with terrorists and mass school shootings etc and many americans will be okay with it as well despite it harming innocent americans. I do feel we are getting to that point but the processing power and to do this will be with western corporations rather than western governments. . Just by data mining target has had the capability to predict that a teenage girl was pregnant even before her parents in 2010 They can predict a lot more but most western corporations don't have profit motive to do so and governments have been unable to do so without pushback.
China and many asian countries don't face similar pushback so they are building surveillance states that knows how a citizen spends every second they haven't got the AI that could monitor all its billions over citizens. But that is I feel just a few years away.

And a few years afterwards the giant robots will follow.
Sentinels are the ultimate in profiling: detect mutant, detain mutant, kill mutant. No mutants, no mutant problem.
Substitute troublemakers of your choice for the X-Men.

Just don't assume the west will be immune to the lure of the proven solution. Attitudes change and actions breed reactions. After a while people get tired of half-measures even in the most "liberal" of places. Often as a first resort instead of the last. (C.f., WWII and the Nisei.)

Given enough ongoing provocation, people *will* resort to even the most extreme "solutions". Don't even need an evil madman leader. Just ask the Rohingya.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by hildea

I was at a conference about big data where this anecdote was discussed. Even if it's true, we don't know:

• How many customers who got pregnancy-related ads without being pregnant
• How many customers who were pregnant who didn't get those ads

So, at best we know that one pregnant customer got those ads, but that might be just random luck.

Another problem with using big data is that they can strenghten existing predudices. For instance say two different demographic groups use drugs equally much, but one of them is stopped and searched in random checks more often (because of predudice in the police). Then your data will tell you, quite correctly, that members of group A are more likely to be arrested for drug crimes than group B. If you use this to decide how to prioritize which groups to check more often in the future, you are making policing even more predudiced, and believing you are basing it on objective data.

In general, the police stop and frisk wasn't about drugs, it was about guns. It just so happened that a lot of drug dealers also happen to also carry illegal guns, presumably to protect themselves from other criminals.

A large part of the reason that profiling works is that profiles are not based on personal prejudices, but rather are based on what sort of person matches a given criteria. Police don't just walk around frisking random black guys, they frisk black guys who act a certain way. Police also tend to stop middle aged white guys slowing driving along in an area known for prostitution or drugs as well.

If you read up on how airport security works in Israel, you will see that the agents are trained to watch for certain behaviors rather than certain demographic groups. It's not all that easy to tell an Arab from a Jew at a glance in Israel.

[Fiat_Lux]

Originally Posted by hildea

Another problem with using big data is that they can strengthen existing prejudices

That is when profiling becomes self-fulfilling prophecy.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by kennyc

"The United States might ban laptops from aircraft cabins on all flights into and out of the country as part of a ramped-up effort to protect against potential security threats, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said on Sunday....."

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKBN18O0KL

It turns out most business travelers will only be inconvenienced, not shut down.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/laptop-...ive-in-flight/

Between loaner laptops, Windows To Go thumbdrives, phablets, and free business class in-flight wifi they'll be covered. And in August they'll get Intel Card PCs, full business class PCs the size of a credit card.

https://www.cnet.com/news/intel-comp...-of-your-hand/

It's everybody else that'll get shut down.

[drofgnal]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

It turns out most business travelers will only be inconvenienced, not shut down.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/laptop-...ive-in-flight/

Between loaner laptops, Windows To Go thumbdrives, phablets, and free business class in-flight wifi they'll be covered. And in August they'll get Intel Card PCs, full business class PCs the size of a credit card.

https://www.cnet.com/news/intel-comp...-of-your-hand/

It's everybody else that'll get shut down.

I haven't travelled internationally in my job in a while. (I have a .gov email) We are not allowed to use USB drives, unless fully encrypted, and then, not in someone else laptop, so none of the above options would work for me. We can't even carry our work laptop on international travel, we are given a loaner, and when we return, it's memory is erased. Same with an iPhone, you carry a loaner and it is erased upon return.

I travel frequently, mostly all in the US. In general, I read what ever book I'm reading while I'm on an airplane. If the ban extends to US travel, I'll just go back to reading paper books. Before e-readers, I'd by a book at the airport gift shop, and they'd buy it back after I'm done. I noticed last week in the airport, they still do that.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by drofgnal

I haven't travelled internationally in my job in a while. (I have a .gov email) We are not allowed to use USB drives, unless fully encrypted, and then, not in someone else laptop, so none of the above options would work for me. We can't even carry our work laptop on international travel, we are given a loaner, and when we return, it's memory is erased. Same with an iPhone, you carry a loaner and it is erased upon return.

I travel frequently, mostly all in the US. In general, I read what ever book I'm reading while I'm on an airplane. If the ban extends to US travel, I'll just go back to reading paper books. Before e-readers, I'd by a book at the airport gift shop, and they'd buy it back after I'm done. I noticed last week in the airport, they still do that.

Windows to go is a fully encrypted Windows install that is heavily encrypted and leaves no traces. It also costs big business nothing to deploy. It's part of their existing licensing. If your IT gods have to deal with a laptop ban that is the path of least resistance. Current policies will adjust.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Windows to go is a fully encrypted Windows install that is heavily encrypted and leaves no traces. It also costs big business nothing to deploy. It's part of their existing licensing. If your IT gods have to deal with a laptop ban that is the path of least resistance. Current policies will adjust.

Yeah policies should adjust but this is wrong adjustment.

[ebusinesstutor]

Originally Posted by rkomar

In Canadian airports, I have had some electronics checked for traces of explosives. Apparently if you take your nitroglycerin heart pills in your fingers and then type on the keyboard, they can pick that up. It sounds like they've thought carefully about their policy, and I'll be surprised if they change it in the next while.

I have heard glycerine based soaps and hand creams can register a false positive for explosives, so I try to avoid using or packing any of these.

[ebusinesstutor]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Windows to go is a fully encrypted Windows install that is heavily encrypted and leaves no traces. It also costs big business nothing to deploy. It's part of their existing licensing. If your IT gods have to deal with a laptop ban that is the path of least resistance. Current policies will adjust.

But I wonder if your drive/operating system is encrypted if they will be more suspicious and detain you longer or keep your electronics for deeper investigation.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by ebusinesstutor

But I wonder if your drive/operating system is encrypted if they will be more suspicious and detain you longer or keep your electronics for deeper investigation.

I imagine that most large companies use full-disk encryption on their laptops. My employer's done so for many years. There's too much commercial risk otherwise if a laptop is lost or stolen. It's standard commercial practice.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I imagine that most large companies use full-disk encryption on their laptops. My employer's done so for many years. There's too much commercial risk otherwise if a laptop is lost or stolen. It's standard commercial practice.

Yep.


.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I imagine that most large companies use full-disk encryption on their laptops. My employer's done so for many years. There's too much commercial risk otherwise if a laptop is lost or stolen. It's standard commercial practice.

Many large corporations in the US won't let you take company owned laptops outside the US. They give special laptops to individuals who have a need to take them overseas.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Many large corporations in the US won't let you take company owned laptops outside the US. They give special laptops to individuals who have a need to take them overseas.

That seems slightly curious to me. Why would a laptop be at a greater risk of being stolen in a country outside the US? If it contains commercially valuable information, surely the same level of encryption should be applied to it regardless of its location?

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That seems slightly curious to me. Why would a laptop be at a greater risk of being stolen in a country outside the US? If it contains commercially valuable information, surely the same level of encryption should be applied to it regardless of its location?

Because America is the safest country in the world?

[HarryT]

In my company, the most common way that people lose laptops is having them stolen from cars. I imagine that happens in the US, too .