Why I opted out

For national opt-out day, I decided to wear speedos to the security line in the airport to make a show of calling attention to the absurdity of the new TSA “security” measures. Here is a video of my protest, followed by an explanation of why I decided to do it:

The new security measures are ineffective

Top Israeli security experts recommend against buying these machines. In fact, as long as our security measures remain reactive rather than proactive, we will always be very far behind the Israeli’s in terms of airport security. Schneier has loads of informative writings about the issue. I chose the words “Security Theater” to describe the whole thing. This is the TSA trying to stay relevant and keep getting government funding whereas that same money could be much better used elsewhere.

What’s even worse is that some amount of people decide to avoid air travel altogether as a result of this while debacle. Per mile, driving is less safe, and will result in extra avoidable deaths. Moreover, the airlines (which are already a rather troubled industry) can’t possibly be happy with losing customers for no good reason.

The new TSA measures are a misuse of resources

The risk of a terrorist attack is very small compared to other sources of death. In fact, if airports instituted mandatory mammographs many more lives would be saved from breast cancer. I can think of many other ways to save lives, and advance American interests (healthcare, education, police force) that are actually proven to be effective.

Assuming we do want to invest the money into airport security, security would be much better served by investing into better intelligence and infiltration efforts. That’s money that is going to be effective no matter what the terrorists decide to attack. As long as you invest to protect static targets, the terrorists will shift strategies to avoid falling into your hands. Maybe that’s why the TSA is yet to catch a single terrorist with their security measures.

Privacy – A strip search by any other name…

Is still a strip search. If the government wants to impose mandatory strip searches, it should at least be honest about what’s going on. Just because fancy technology is involved, and it’s quicker and somewhat more convenient (which means they can do it en-masse) doesn’t mean it’s not a strip search. So the choice is to go through a strip choice, or to get gropped. I’m not sure that’s a choice at all: get violated by somebody’s hands, or somebody’s eyes. This aspect of the technology is what my action is really trying to draw attention to – that going through security in speedos is actually less degrading than going through one of those machines, or getting groped.