more on What if Cat Stevens had flown under a different name?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "sbaker () steptoe com" <sbaker () steptoe com>
Date: September 23, 2004 12:51:13 PM EDT
To: "'dave () farber net'" <dave () farber net>
Cc: "Albertazzie, Sally" <SAlbertazzie () steptoe com>
Subject: RE: [IP] What if Cat Stevens had flown under a different name?

I can't resist responding to this.  Richard is right, of course.  
Officials
need to know *which* John Smith they have in front of them.  How can 
they do
that?  The way anyone would -- asking whether this is the John Smith 
that
lives in Poughkeepsie and used to live in Knoxville and is married to 
Mary
Smith.  But the IP list has consistently derided and opposed the
government's effort to do just that -- to create (in CAPPS II) a way to
conduct quick, easy record checks that can provide "depth of field" to 
an
identification.

It's fair (but not very sensible, in my view) to criticize CAPPS II on
privacy grounds.  It's not fair to criticize CAPPS II on privacy 
grounds and
then to criticize the government's current system because it does a bad 
job
of going beyond an individual's name.

-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/