Behavior Assessment Profiling

Bruce Schneier provides an interesting opinion piece in the Boston Globe. It relates to behavioral assessment at airports. Essentially, he comes down with how behavioral assessment works and computer passenger profiling doesn't.

This is all in reference to the ACLU suit challenging the constitutionality of Behavioral assessment Profiling. But read the ACLU link. You can very easily come to the conclusion that its personal revenge.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of King Downing, the National Coordinator of the ACLU's Campaign Against Racial Profiling, who was approached by law enforcement officials after arriving at Logan Airport on October 16, 2003 to attend a meeting on racial profiling in Boston. Upon arriving at the airport, Downing, an African-American who wears a short beard, left the gate area and was making a phone call in the public terminal when he was stopped by a state police trooper who demanded that he produce some identification. When Downing declined to do so without knowing the basis for the request, he was first told that he would have to leave the airport. However, when he attempted to leave the terminal building, Downing was stopped again, surrounded by four troopers and told that he was being placed under arrest for failing to produce identification. When Downing finally agreed to produce his driver's license, the troopers then demanded to see his airline ticket. Downing was told by the police that he could be barred from the airport if he did not cooperate. After the police inspected Downing's identification and travel documents, he was allowed to leave. No charges were ever filed against him.

I would say that the cops were a bit overboard here, but, that is there job in this case. The point of what the police do is if they see someone that doesn't appear right, they ask for ID. If you say NO, they get suspicious. And not cooperating makes things worse.

The ACLU is wrong in their suit though. As Schneier points out:

But the ACLU has it wrong. Behavioral assessment profiling isn't the problem. Abuse of behavioral profiling is the problem, and the ACLU has correctly identified where it can go wrong. If policemen fall back on naive profiling by race, ethnicity, age, gender -- characteristics not relevant to security -- they're little better than a computer. Instead of "driving while black," the police will face accusations of harassing people for the infraction of "flying while Arab." Their actions will increase racial tensions and make them less likely to notice the real threats. And we'll all be less safe as a result.

Bruce Schneier has a newsletter called Cryptogram. If you have interest in security topics, have a look.