I'm a bit lost here. cory doctorow, who I consider a reputable source, claims to have been asked for a written dossier of the names and addresses of the friends he planned on staying with prior to boarding an AA flight in London. he has written about this and his exchange with cust serv on boingboing.net and other blogs. I thought I'd mention it here, maybe someone can help the guy out with some infos.
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http://www.boingboing.net/2005/04/10/ameri...irlines_do.html
American Airlines' dossier on Cory's friends: the latest installment
Back in January, I flew American Airlines from London Gatwick to San Francisco. At the checkin counter, I was shocked when an AA security guard (not a customs officer -- private, corporate contract-security for AA) demanded that I produce a written dossier of the names and addresses of the friends I planned on staying with in the USA. She cited an unspecified TSA regulation that required this, and could not tell me what AA's document retention policy was, nor what would be done with this information. Her aggressive supervisor accused me of undermining the safety of airlines in the sky by refusing to answer, and affirmed that the TSA required it. I stood fast, and finally the terminal supervisor told me that since I fly American enough to hold a Platinum card, I wouldn't be required to turn over this information.
I wrote an open letter to AA asking why they asked me for this info, and what TSA rule they were operating under when they did so.
Imagine my surprise when I got a reply from AA telling me that they'd been telling the press that my "specific behaviors" had triggered the secondary screening and that I had been told that they would give me the information they were taking on my friends' names and addresses when I left the counter. The latter is a flat out lie -- not a misunderstanding or a grey area of the truth, a total and utter fabrication. The former is intriguing -- what behaviors "triggered the secondary screening?" Moreover, AA told me that this was a case of a screener who misunderstood the policy, but if that's so, why did her supervisor back her up?
So I wrote a response, pointing out all of this and repeating my unanswered questions about the screening procedure.
On Friday, I got a terse reply from AA, telling me that a Federal Aviation Administration rule forbid them discussing the specifics of their procedures. That's a weird answer, since nearly all of my questions had nothing to do with the specifics of their procedures, and since the FAA no longer oversees much in the way of airline security, having been deprecated in favor of the Transport Security Agency.
My latest letter points all of this out. The FAA may tell them not to tell me which behaviors trigger secondary screening (ah, security through obscurity, I feel safer already), but it surely doesn't prevent them from explaining why they issued a press-release that lied about what happened at the counter, nor does it require them not to disclose their privacy policy, which they are required under British law to have and to produce on demand. And of course, it's not a law if it's not written down and subject to inspection, so they should certainly be able to tell me the number, name or reference for this regulation.
In your letter of the 22nd, you say, "Federal Aviation Administration regulations prohibit us from discussing the details of security measures so as to avoid compromising the purpose and integrity of the process."
This came as a surprise to me: I was under the impression that the FAA had basically ceded security administration to the TSA. Indeed, it was the TSA which the AA representatives at Gatwick cited when they asked me for a written dossier on my friends' names and addresses.
It's good to hear that this is the FAA and not the TSA. However, I have never heard of an FAA regulation that prohibits airlines from sharing details of their security procedures with the public.
Which leads me to ask:
* What is the name, number or reference for this regulation, please?
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http://www.boingboing.net/2005/04/10/ameri...irlines_do.html
American Airlines' dossier on Cory's friends: the latest installment
Back in January, I flew American Airlines from London Gatwick to San Francisco. At the checkin counter, I was shocked when an AA security guard (not a customs officer -- private, corporate contract-security for AA) demanded that I produce a written dossier of the names and addresses of the friends I planned on staying with in the USA. She cited an unspecified TSA regulation that required this, and could not tell me what AA's document retention policy was, nor what would be done with this information. Her aggressive supervisor accused me of undermining the safety of airlines in the sky by refusing to answer, and affirmed that the TSA required it. I stood fast, and finally the terminal supervisor told me that since I fly American enough to hold a Platinum card, I wouldn't be required to turn over this information.
I wrote an open letter to AA asking why they asked me for this info, and what TSA rule they were operating under when they did so.
Imagine my surprise when I got a reply from AA telling me that they'd been telling the press that my "specific behaviors" had triggered the secondary screening and that I had been told that they would give me the information they were taking on my friends' names and addresses when I left the counter. The latter is a flat out lie -- not a misunderstanding or a grey area of the truth, a total and utter fabrication. The former is intriguing -- what behaviors "triggered the secondary screening?" Moreover, AA told me that this was a case of a screener who misunderstood the policy, but if that's so, why did her supervisor back her up?
So I wrote a response, pointing out all of this and repeating my unanswered questions about the screening procedure.
On Friday, I got a terse reply from AA, telling me that a Federal Aviation Administration rule forbid them discussing the specifics of their procedures. That's a weird answer, since nearly all of my questions had nothing to do with the specifics of their procedures, and since the FAA no longer oversees much in the way of airline security, having been deprecated in favor of the Transport Security Agency.
My latest letter points all of this out. The FAA may tell them not to tell me which behaviors trigger secondary screening (ah, security through obscurity, I feel safer already), but it surely doesn't prevent them from explaining why they issued a press-release that lied about what happened at the counter, nor does it require them not to disclose their privacy policy, which they are required under British law to have and to produce on demand. And of course, it's not a law if it's not written down and subject to inspection, so they should certainly be able to tell me the number, name or reference for this regulation.
In your letter of the 22nd, you say, "Federal Aviation Administration regulations prohibit us from discussing the details of security measures so as to avoid compromising the purpose and integrity of the process."
This came as a surprise to me: I was under the impression that the FAA had basically ceded security administration to the TSA. Indeed, it was the TSA which the AA representatives at Gatwick cited when they asked me for a written dossier on my friends' names and addresses.
It's good to hear that this is the FAA and not the TSA. However, I have never heard of an FAA regulation that prohibits airlines from sharing details of their security procedures with the public.
Which leads me to ask:
* What is the name, number or reference for this regulation, please?
