Cory Doctorow makes an interesting discovery....

[sigma7]

Last week on a trip from London to the US, American Airlines demanded that I write out a list of the names and addresses of all the friends I would be staying with in the USA. They claimed that this was due to a TSA regulation, but refused to state which regulation required them to gather this information, nor what they would do with it once they'd gathered it. I raised a stink, and was eventually told that I wouldn't have to give them the requested dossier because I was a Platinum AAdvantage Card holder (e.g., because I fly frequently with AA)....

Comments

[opheliasclone.livejournal.com]

I read about a case pending in the courts whereby an ordinary passenger is suing TSA for making and using ad hoc regulations on a monthly basis that are classified and therefore can't be reviewed by passengers. This makes it impossible to tell when real regulations are being pursued and when the local employees of any given airline are pulling stuff from their butts to harrass passengers they don't like the looks of.

TSA's argument is that if regular passengers can find out what the regulations are, so can terrorists. And if terrorists can find out what the regulations are, their whole clever plan of catching terrorists with questions they weren't expecting will fail.

At this time, TSA is refusing to release the regulation under dispute to the courts. Unfortunately, this will have to be referred pretty high up the court system before a judge has sufficient jurisdiction to force TSA's hands. Let the delaying tactics begin...