FourthAmendment.com brings us news of a court opinion that Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees engaged in an unreasonable search of a passenger’s luggage and that the child pornography they uncovered should be suppressed. In United States v. McCarty, the court held: Despite the testimony indicating that the TSA employees searched the photographs solely to determine…
Tag: Transportation Security Administration
Wronged travelers to get new system for filing complaints
Alice Lipowicz reports: The Homeland Security Department has agreed to replace its existing information technology support for the Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (TRIP) with a more effective system, according to a new report from DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner. The support system is an existing system of the Transportation Security Administration. The system was expanded…
Airport developments: strip searches, Clear program
EPIC.org notes: The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has plans to greatly expand its use of whole body imaging machines at airports around the country. The x-ray machines, which each cost over $100,000, capture detailed, graphic images of passengers’ naked bodies. In June, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a measure that would restrict TSA’s use of…
TSA needs privacy IT tools, IG says
Alice Lipowicz reports: The Transportation Security Administration should deploy automated tools to test and monitor the effectiveness of privacy safeguards in its programs, according to a new report from Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner. In a report issued Sept. 18, Skinner recommended that TSA’s Office of the Chief Information Officer implement such tools, and…