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TSA Launches Israel-Style Behavior Profiling Program Called 'SPOT'

TSA has very slowly been moving toward Israeli-style behavior profiling since at least March, which was when we first covered this story. The news this morning is that the agency has finally launched a one billion dollar pilot program at BOS under the too-cute name "Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques"—SPOT—with the intention perhaps of eventually deploying it elsewhere. It seems to be modeled very closely on how the Israelis do things, which immediately raises the question of how exactly the agency intends to pull all this off.

"Behavior profiling" can actually mean at least two things. In the most basic sense behavior profiling it's just about passively watching people. This is the Las Vegas "eye in the sky" kind of profiling, where body language experts monitor the casino floor and can detect cheaters just by the way they walk around nervously. Setting up this kind of passive program is just a matter of having enough resources to train and employ people, and TSA already has so-called "behavior detection officers" in 161 airports (you can check out our background on that program here). But that's not really what people mean when they say "Israeli-style behavior profiling."

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Holiday Travel / Airports / TSA / TLV / Israel Travel / Airport Security / Christmas Travel / Terrorism / → All Tags

December Has Been Quite the Month for the TSA; They Did Frisk Santa, After All

Miss TSA Pin-Up Calendars...giving Santa a pat-down... What weird TSA news will we hear next?

The US government will spend over $160 million on full-body scanning over the next two years. On one hand, you have Israeli security experts who say that's a waste of money. On the other hand, you have DC-based scanning machine lobbies who've seen their funding double over the last 5 years, and who think that's a fantastic development. As always we acknowledge that this is a tangled debate with arguments on both sides, though we will note that in sharp contrast to TSA, Israeli airport security doesn't routinely let weapons and explosives slip through checkpoints. We'll also note that TLV doesn't get needlessly evacuated because of holiday gifts and... umm... frozen chicken.

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El Al Wins Best Airline Security Award and They Actually Deserve It

We think of El Al getting Global Traveler's Best Airline Security award the same way we approach The Amazing Race winning the annual Outstanding Reality-Competition Program Emmy: who else would get it? The designation, voted on by over 25,000 of the magazine's readers, has been around for three years and has never gone to any airline but El Al. This year's poll was no exception.

The striking thing about Israel's national airline—and this is a point we've tried to make again and again in the context of TSA—is that while their upfront security measures are obsessive, once you get past screening everything goes smoothly. This is true whether you're flying to Israel from a tiny airport or leaving the country from Tel Aviv. Passengers are asked to show up three hours in advance, every individual is interviewed in line by an agent, all baggage is screened, and so on. But once you've been cleared, that's that. No nonsense about taking off your shoes, no school-teacher scolding about when you can or can't touch your bags, no scribbled codes on your boarding pass. If you begin with basic competence, everything else falls into place.

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Hillary Clinton Can Check Her E-mail at Ben Gurion Airport

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport on Monday to meet with leaders of Israel's political parties. Despite being continually dogged by accusations of low safety standards, including a recent salvo from the European Aviation Safety Agency, Ben Gurion International continues to welcome high-profile and high-security guests like the Pope, who's scheduled to pass through there May 11 en route to say a papal mass in Nazareth

We don't know if she immediately made a pit stop in order to see if her boss Barry sent her some TPS reports to fill out, but she could have using the free WiFi in Terminal 3. Whether you're the public face of a world power or just the CEO of your own life, let us know which airports are best for business and we'll add 'em to our Airport WiFi map.

Related Stories:
· Clinton arrives in Israel on first visit as top US diplomat [AFP via Google]
· EASA may ban Israeli flights into Europe [Port2Port.com]
· Vatican picks Nazareth as venue for papal mass [Haaretz]
· Airport WiFi Map [Jaunted]

Airport Security / Security / TLV / → All Tags

Airport Security: Has Our Shoe Salvation Arrived?

Could this be what we've all been waiting for? Israel's Ben-Gurion International has added a gizmo called MagShoe to its security checkpoints in Terminal 3, meaning some passengers will be able to leave their shoes on.

MagShoe specifically scans the feet and ankles of fliers, and while it doesn't sniff for explosives, it can presumably detect batteries and wires packed into the heels of a potential bomber's kicks. (It picks up both ferrous and non-ferrous metals, though the manufacturer says the device "ignores metal normally found inside shoes to reduce false alarms.")

A foot scan with MagShoe takes only two seconds, which is substantially less time than it takes us to horn our shoes back on while juggling our laptop after clearing a TSA checkpoint.

Related Stories:
· About MagShoe [Official Site]
· Lulz with the TSA [Jaunted]
· TSA Testing New Shoes-on Technology [Jaunted]

Airport WiFi / Airport-WiFi-Map / Airport WiFi Guide / BUD / RNO / PHX / RST / FSD / RAP / TLV / → All Tags

Airport WiFi: More Airports, More Free Wireless

We've been getting lots of mail on our tipline lately about our Airport WiFi Map. We read it all, and we appreciate it!

Your notes have given us even more places to add to our mashup, which is already stocked with dozens of airports worldwide that have free wireless. (We don't roll with airports that charge!)

To check out all of our previous airport WiFi coverage, click here.

Related Stories:
· Airport WiFi Map [Jaunted]