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Previously undisclosed TSA program tracks unsuspecting passengers

AlbqOwl said:
Walgreen's here doesn't accept it because they scan in our photo ID on their system so they can keep track of all our meds and know it is us who calls in and such. I guess it is harder to do from a passport. And I haven't flown in the last year or so, but the last time I did have to show photo ID to get my boarding pass and check my bag at the airport and then show it and my ticket again to TSA when going through security. Both processes went pretty smoothly and quickly though.
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That's a bit shocking that they wouldn't accept a passport, although the size of a passport is really annoying for travel. Many people print their boarding passes at home, so no ID check there, unless a side process I'm not aware.
 
AliHajiSheik said:
That's a bit shocking that they wouldn't accept a passport, although the size of a passport is really annoying for travel. Many people print their boarding passes at home, so no ID check there, unless a side process I'm not aware.
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About half the people I see use their phones to display the boarding pass. Nothing printed
 
AliHajiSheik said:
That's a bit shocking that they wouldn't accept a passport, although the size of a passport is really annoying for travel. Many people print their boarding passes at home, so no ID check there, unless a side process I'm not aware.
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Well like I said, its a practical matter for them because their scanning equipment doesn't work with a passport but does with a driver's license.
 
AlbqOwl said:
Walgreen's here doesn't accept it because they scan in our photo ID on their system so they can keep track of all our meds and know it is us who calls in and such. I guess it is harder to do from a passport. And I haven't flown in the last year or so, but the last time I did have to show photo ID to get my boarding pass and check my bag at the airport and then show it and my ticket again to TSA when going through security. Both processes went pretty smoothly and quickly though.
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Sounds like Walgreens knows as much if not more about people than the airlines.
 
AliHajiSheik said:
I'm not so sure. No one has to produce a passport on a domestic flight and I've never heard of anyone giving a SSN to an airline. American citizens don't have immigration records (other than transits), so at best it could be used to identify those who are not American citizens.

Very weird part of the story.
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The only way I could think that they would have your SSN is if you are you went through the TSA precheck program. They take your SSN and fingerprint you for that. Maybe CLEAR as well, but I haven't done that program.
 
Blue_State said:
The only way I could think that they would have your SSN is if you are you went through the TSA precheck program. They take your SSN and fingerprint you for that. Maybe CLEAR as well, but I haven't done that program.
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As someone else pointed out, there are ways of getting SSN, but the Trusted Traveller programs are folks freely sharing their SSN and other information in exchange for smoother transition through security. Certainly not a basis for determining citizenship for those who haven't shared such information.
 
AliHajiSheik said:
As someone else pointed out, there are ways of getting SSN, but the Trusted Traveller programs are folks freely sharing their SSN and other information in exchange for smoother transition through security. Certainly not a basis for determining citizenship for those who haven't shared such information.
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Agreed. I was just mentioning that i the only I could think of them getting those numbers without going fishing for them. That is the legitimate way to do it in my opinion as you pointed out, the people who use those services volunteered that info.
 
AliHajiSheik said:
I can find nothing to support that one needs to produce identification to buy airline tickets.
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OK, I plead guilty to overstating my case.

However, the fact remains that you DO have to provide identification in order to board an aircraft and that means that "American citizens" (into which category I'll lump "Permanent Residents") are easily identifiable - which makes it quite easy to "observe" them.

AliHajiSheik said:
I never said that you said you had to produce your SSN to purchase a ticket, ...
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If I implied that, I apologize.

AliHajiSheik said:
I was making an observation.
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And I was making the observation that obtaining a passenger's SSN would be an easy task if you had the "investigative clout" to want to do so.

AliHajiSheik said:
People with green cards don't need to show a passport to board a plane when boarding a plane, and yet they are not American citizens.
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Quite right, but they have to show "acceptable identification" and once someone has an official name and address, SSNs are "easy" to come by - and once someone has an SSN then "immigration status" is easy to come by.

AliHajiSheik said:
American citizenship can't be summed up as those who don't carry foreign passports.
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In fact, some American citizens ALSO carry foreign passports. Mind you, a (let's say) dual "Iranian/American citizen" would have to be really stupid to use their Iranian passport when flying in the United States of America.
 
TU Curmudgeon said:
OK, I plead guilty to overstating my case.

However, the fact remains that you DO have to provide identification in order to board an aircraft and that means that "American citizens" (into which category I'll lump "Permanent Residents") are easily identifiable - which makes it quite easy to "observe" them.



If I implied that, I apologize.



And I was making the observation that obtaining a passenger's SSN would be an easy task if you had the "investigative clout" to want to do so.



Quite right, but they have to show "acceptable identification" and once someone has an official name and address, SSNs are "easy" to come by - and once someone has an SSN then "immigration status" is easy to come by.



In fact, some American citizens ALSO carry foreign passports. Mind you, a (let's say) dual "Iranian/American citizen" would have to be really stupid to use their Iranian passport when flying in the United States of America.
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Other than international flights, I have never had to show identification to actually board a flight. My ticket was scanned and I boarded. TSA looked at my ticket and my ID to let me through security, the TSA agent marked my ticket somehow. I see you are from Canada. I don't know that anything is different in Canada. On my only domestic Canadian flight I've had, no one that I saw was asked to show an ID to actually board the flight.

I don't know if this is laziness on the airline staff, or trust that since TSA let them through that it was acceptable to the airline.

The rest of your points are acknowledged.
 
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