[Steve]

Air passengers 'could be tagged'

Electronically tagging passengers at airports could help the fight against terrorism, scientists have said.

The prototype technology is to be tested at an airport in Hungary, and could, if successful, become a reality "in two years".

The work is being carried out at a new research centre, based at University College London, set up to find technological solutions to crime. Other projects include scanners for explosives and dirty bomb radiation.

Dr Paul Brennan, an electrical engineer, is leading the tagging project, known as Optag. He said: "The basic idea is that airports could be fitted with a network of combined panoramic cameras and RFID (radio frequency ID) tag readers, which would monitor the movements of people around the various terminal buildings." The plan, he said, would be for each passenger to be issued with a tag at check-in.

He said: "In our system, the location can be detected to an accuracy of 1m, and video and tag data could be merged to give a powerful surveillance capability."

Civil liberties

The tags do not store any data, but emit a signal containing a unique ID which could be cross-referenced with passenger identification information. In the future, added Dr Brennan, this could incorporate biometric data. The project still needs to overcome some hurdles, such as finding a way of ensuring the tags cannot be switched between passengers or removed without notification.

The issue of infringement of civil liberties will also be key.

But potentially, said Dr Brennan, the tags could aid security by allowing airports to track the movement patterns of passengers deemed to be suspicious and prevent them from entering restricted areas. It could also aid airports by helping evacuation in case of a fire, rapidly locating children, and finding passengers who are late to arrive at the gate.

The "proof of concept" of the system is about to be tested at Debrecen airport in Hungary. If successful, claimed Dr Brennan, it could be available elsewhere within two years.

[Steve]

Am I missing something here…the article says that air passengers could be tagged yet it mentions nothing of them being tagged whilst on the planes and is only relevant to them being in the airport.

It also doesn’t mention anything about other people in the airports, what about the many employees of the various companies that work in airports, the baggage handlers, the catering companies, the shop staff, the check in agents, cleaners etc. And then what abut the members of public that go to the airports to drop of or meet passengers, these are all using the airports legally and legitimately too, why are they not to be tagged? Has this really been thought through?

I understand terrorist threats and the statements that the innocent have nothing to fear, but also wonder if the good intentions are not getting a little lost in the notion of having to be seen to be doing something. Currently I see so many flaws in the above system that I am actually quite shocked that they have not considered the ways that people can easily avoid the tags and that they haven’t got solutions to prevent this, then there is the whole different argument of invasion of civil liberties…

Your thoughts?

[lolyton]

My thoughts......World Gone Mad!

[Sonsey]

Originally Posted by Steve

Has this really been thought through?

The whole state of airport security hasn't been thought through at all IMO, everything since 9/11 has been a complete knee-jerk reaction and this new "tag" scheme is just another step being taken by a paranoid security sector who don't really know what to do about the situation.

Instead of stacking more and more restrictive measure's onto passengers I think they should update and re-develop the existing systems (e.g x-ray machines, yeah... they work well!) before this all goes too far.

Rant over!