Most of us who travel for business have been late getting to the airport, at least once. The next time you make a scramble for the check-in desk, reach for your passport, and realize that you left it in the pocket of the jacket that you changed at the last minute, you may still have hope!
If you were to go by this tweet from Zack Klein and the related buzz in the media, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) allowed him to board a flight using his Facebook profile as his travel ID! Mr. Klein did not indicate the origin and destination of his flight.
My immediate reaction to this is disbelief!
My second thought was “What about his driver’s license?” With the bad guys getting creative in their ways to disrupt the lives of normal people, and the security at airports fluctuating with the colour levels posted by the Home Land Security Advisory System, social media profiles being accepted as travel ID makes me uncomfortable.
A quick look at TSA’s blog shows that in the last year alone 1813 guns were confiscated from carry-on bags of passengers. Of these, 140 were loaded!
While the TSA’s position appears to be that the use of “publicly available databases” being used to identify a person’s identity is within guidelines, the specifics of what constitutes such a database appear to be open to interpretation. It is fair to assume that the fact that Zach Klein is a successful Internet entrepreneur from the San Francisco area, and the co-founder of Vimeo, may have played into the TSA agent’s decision.
So, before you consider flashing your Twitter profile as your travel ID, it may make sense to double-check and ensure that you have your passport in your back pocket.
