Shorter airport wait comes at privacy cost

It may seem like a good idea to give personal information to the Transportation Security Administration ahead of time in order to speed up the security and boarding process at the airport. But there's a catch.

While the TSA's PreCheck program may get you on your plane faster, it may also expose your information to agencies and purposes that don't have anything to do with air travel. Debt-collection agencies, for example, may use it to track you down. Your fingerprints may go to the FBI for use in solving old crimes.

According to The New York Times:

"The average person doesn't understand how much intelligence-driven matching is going on and how this could be accessed for other purposes," said Khaliah Barnes, a lawyer with the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which has fought to block these initiatives. "There's no meaningful oversight, transparency or accountability."

LEARN MORE ABOUT AIRPORT SECURITY CHECKS:

• Security Check Now Starts Long Before You Fly
"I think the best way to look at it is as a pre-crime assessment every time you fly," said Edward Hasbrouck, a consultant to the Identity Project, one of the groups that oppose the prescreening initiatives. "The default will be the highest, most intrusive level of search, and anything less will be conditioned on providing some additional information in some fashion." (The New York Times)

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