NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
Security Measure or Invasion of Privacy?
Airports are implementing ‘chat-downs,’ which question fliers on travel plans across the country
by Hayley Johnson
C
edarville University students flying
home for Christmas can expect that
their time getting through security
checkpoints will be lengthened because of the
implementation of “chat-downs” at airports
across the United States. According to sever-
al news reports, this new process is sparking
concerns of violations of privacy for older fliers
while the post-9/11 generation tends to view
them as necessary for national security.
In August, a pilot program for this new
procedure was launched to test how fliers
would respond. The main purpose of chat-
downs is to observe the behavior of passengers
as they respond to a set of questions posed to
them by Transportation Security Administra-
tion (TSA) officers.
Under the new program, fliers answer a
series of questions dealing with why they are
going where they’re going, where they are from
and what brought them to a specific place, all
as the officer checks their boarding passes and
forms of identity. The officers are on the look-
out for behaviors like a lack of eye contact and
vocal tremors, which indicate the passenger
may have suspicious intentions for wanting to
get on the flight.
The chat-down procedure is actually a
continuation of a pro-
gram called Screening
Passengers by Observa-
tion Technique (SPOT),
which has been ongoing
since 2007. Through the
program, TSA officers
observed and talked
with passengers while
looking for 35 “micro-
expressions,” such as
scrunching of one’s eye-
brows or intense sweat-
ing. From 2007 until
now, around 3,000 TSA
officers have circulated
through 160 airports.
However, the program
did not produce definitive results, which has led
to the implementation of chat-downs.
Responses to the chat-down procedure
have been proven to vary by generation. Older
fliers have a variety of concerns, with the main
one being that they view the questioning as an
invasion of their privacy. Many of them believe
that it is not the government’s business to know
where a flier is traveling and for what reason.
This group also objects to the way the TSA
treats everyone as a suspect. They feel that
American citizens have the right under the
U.S. Constitution to move about freely without
being subjected to inquiries. Another reason
that many of these fliers object to chat-downs
is because they are businessmen, and they re-
gret the time that is lost by answering ques-
tions when they could be making phone calls
or keeping up with emails and texts.
The response of the post-9/11 generation to
this procedure has vastly differed from that of
older generations. College students across the
country generally do
not mind having to go
through security mea-
sures like this because
many perceive them as
necessary precautions
that must be taken in
order to keep the skies
safe. They don’t seem
to have a problem with
sacrificing the time or
hassle that comes with
these procedures; they
understand sacrifices
like these must be made
to feel safe.
Cedarville student
Daniel Grahn, a fre-
quent flier who has had several experiences
with customs agents, agrees with the senti-
ments of others in the post-9/11 generation in
the value chat-downs have in protecting na-
tional security.
“Chat-downs will help identify potential
terrorists who are nervous about their plans,”
Grahn said.
He also feels that strict safety measures
such as these are necessary to keep America safe.
“The U.S. has been able to remain a ter-
rorism free country for years because of our
stringent safety measures,” Grahn said. “This
country has forgotten that we are at war with
the terrorists. When you are at war, you have
to make sacrifices.”
The introduction of chat-downs marks
a departure in what has been the main focus
of the TSA for the last decade: detecting dan-
gerous objects. Focus was put on this after the
9/11 attacks. However, pat-downs do continue,
and they have become more aggressive over
the past couple of months, which has left many
passengers feeling like they have been violat-
ed. Many of them cite the Fourth Amendment,
which prohibits unreasonable search and sei-
zure, in urging TSA to back down on the ag-
gressive pat-downs.
Full body scanners, also known as the
Gigahertz, are another way airport security of-
ficials try to detect dangerous objects. In 2010,
there were 40 of these scanners in airports
across the country, and that number has been
rising rapidly. By the end of this year, there
will be a total of 1,000 of them in airports.
These scanners generate graphic images
of passengers using radiation technology. The
purpose of having fliers undergo these scans
is to help identify those who may have weap-
ons hidden underneath clothing that a metal
detector might not pick up. Placing these scan-
ners in airports was prompted by the attempt
of a Nigerian man to blow up an airliner over
Detroit with explosives hidden in his under-
wear on Christmas Day of 2010.
There are many people who feel that this
procedure is too invasive, but TSA has coun-
tered these concerns by stating that they take
a number of steps to protect the privacy of
passengers. First, the faces of passengers are
blurred. Second, the images produced by the
scanning machine are viewed by screeners in
a closed room and cannot be stored. Finally,
passengers can undergo a pat-down instead of
having to go through the machine.
How Do Opinions Differ on Chat-Downs Based on Age?
Older Fliers
n
View questioning as an invasion of
privacy
n
Dislike the TSA’s treatment of
everyone as a suspect
n
Value their constitutional right to
move freely
n
Regret the lost time
Younger Fliers
n
Don’t mind necessary precautions
like chat-downs
n
Understand they are used to identify
potential terrorists
n
Believe that stringent safety
measures means safer skies
n
Are willing to sacrifice time for these
measures
More content updated daily at ReadCedars.com
11
December 2011
“Chat-downs
will help identify
potential terrorists
who are nervous
about their plans.”
Daniel Grahn
Cedarville student
Source:
usatoday.com
