• 'We are experimenting on children': The dangers of trans ideology
• Twitter's trans-activist decree targets feminists
• Trans groups under fire for huge rise in child referrals
• There is no such thing as a 'trans kid'
• Thought control wars: UK universities are struggling to deal with 'toxic' trans rights row
• Parents of trans-identifying children send letter to American Academy of Pediatrics begging them to reconsider its one-size-fits-all policy
• Trans activists up in arms over US govt plan to define gender in terms of biological sex
• There's a surge of trans students coming out at my college ... and I'm scared to talk about it

• Canadians are going loonie over skyrocketing food prices
• UK food prices set to rise "at least" 5% due to extreme weather
• Adapt 2030 Ice Age Report: Food prices across the planet upward trajectory with no end in sight
• UK economic collapse accelerating: 28% increase in shops going bust, biggest slump since 2009, food and fuel prices rise
• US farm credit implodes & South Korea food prices soar
• Nigeria: Food prices jump an average 50% as fuel costs jump three-fold

The Transportation Security Administration has set out an alarming vision of pervasive biometric surveillance at airports, which cuts against the right to privacy, the "right to travel," and the right to anonymous association with others.

The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018, which included language that we warned would provide implied Congressional endorsement to biometric screening of domestic travelers and U.S. citizens, became law in early October. The ink wasn't even dry on that bill when the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) published their Biometrics Roadmap for Aviation Security and the Passenger Experience, detailing TSA's plans to work with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to roll out increased biometric collection and screening for all passengers, including Americans traveling domestically.

This roadmap appears to latch on to a perceived acceptance of biometrics as security keys while ignoring the pervasive challenges with accurately identifying individuals and the privacy risks associated with collecting massive amounts of biometric data. Furthermore, it provides no strategy for dealing with passengers who are unfairly misidentified.

Worst of all, while the roadmap explicitly mentions collaborating with airlines and other partners inside and outside the government, it is alarmingly silent on how TSA plans to protect a widely distributed honeypot of sensitive biometric information ripe for misuse by identity thieves, malicious actors, or even legitimate employees abusing their access privileges.

TSA PreCheck is Not a Blank Check

The roadmap proposes significant changes to what the government can do with data collected from more than 5 million people in the TSA PreCheck program. It also proposes new programs to collect and use biometric data from American travelers who haven't opted into the PreCheck program.

The TSA PreCheck program has long been billed as a convenient way for travelers to cut down on security wait times and speed through airports. All a traveler has to do is to sign up, pay a fee, and allow TSA to collect fingerprints for a background check. However, the roadmap outlines TSA's plans to expand use of those prints beyond the background check to other uses throughout the airport, such as for security at the bag drop or for identity verification at security check points.

TSA has already rolled this out as a pilot program. In 2017, at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport and Denver International Airport, TSA used prints from the PreCheck database and a contactless fingerprint reader to verify the identity of PreCheck-approved travelers at security checkpoints at both airports. TSA now proposes to make the pilot program permanent and to widen the biometrics used to include face recognition, iris scans, and others.

Even more concerning, the roadmap outlines a strategy to capture biometrics from American travelers who haven't enrolled in PreCheck and who never consented to any biometric data collection from TSA. Instead of giving passengers the option to opt in, TSA plans to partner and share information with other federal and state agencies like the FBI and state Departments of Motor Vehicles to get the biometric information they want.

While Congress has authorized a biometric data collection exit program for foreign visitors - supposedly to help monitor visa compliance by using biometrics to track foreigners leaving the country-the roadmap explicitly outlines plans for TSA and CBP to collect any biometrics they want from all travelers-American or foreign, international and domestic-wherever they are in the airport. That data will be stored in a widely shared database could be used to track people outside the airport context. For example, TSA's Precheck as well as Clear have already begun using their technology at stadiums to "allow" visitors a faster entry.

This is a big, big change. It is unprecedented for the government to collect, store, and share this kind of data, with this level of detail, with this many agencies and private partners. We know that security lines are a huge pain, but we are concerned that travelers getting used to biometric tracking in the airport context will be less concerned about tracking in other contexts and eventually throughout society at large.

Device Security and National Security Are Not the Same

The roadmap also makes the huge assumption that people will not object to this expanded collection. It states that "popular perceptions [of biometrics] have evolved to appreciate the convenience and security biometric solutions can offer in the commercial aviation sector." In other words, it claims that travelers using biometrics like fingerprints and facial recognition programs to unlock their phones and laptops, will be less concerned about Department of Homeland Security agencies collecting biometrics to store in government databases for unspecified, myriad uses.

The problem with this claim is that those two things are not the same.

Apple software, for one example, allows consumers to use biometrics (currently, fingerprints and faceprints) to unlock their devices. However, Apple has specifically built in privacy and security protections that prevent the biometric data from being stolen. Apple does not enable third party software to access the original biometric data. Plus, unlike federal agencies, Apple stores the original biometric information on your phone, not in a central, searchable database intended for use by multiple government and private partners over many years.

Additionally, TSA seems to be ignoring the risk that relying heavily on biometric data for identification may actually create new national security risks that the federal government is ill-equipped to handle. For example, India's infamous Aadhaar biometric database, which was built by the Indian government to reduce corruption and expanded for use by other public and private groups, keeps getting hacked. It is not only cheap to buy the information of one of the 1.19 billion people in the database, but the hacks also allow for new information to be entered into the database. Rather than increasing security, India's biometric database created more problems and opportunities for corruption.

Implementation Issues and Cost Overruns

Finally, this roadmap glosses over the weaknesses of facial recognition technology as a means to identify travelers and ignores the challenges CBP has already faced rolling out their biometric exit program.

We've written many times before about the significant accuracy problems with current face recognition software, especially for non-white and female people. For example, earlier this summer the ACLU published a test of Amazon's facial recognition program, comparing the official photos of 435 Members of Congress with publicly available mugshots. The ACLU found 28 false matches, even in this relatively small data set.

CBP has claimed to have a 98% accuracy rating in their pilot programs, even though the Office of the Inspector General could not verify those numbers. According to the FAA, 2.5 million passengers fly through U.S. airports every day, meaning that even a 2% error rate would cause thousands of people to be misidentified every day.

TSA's roadmap does not acknowledge these accuracy problems, much less outline an efficient way to allow wrongly identified travelers to complete their trips. Additionally, the roadmap does not acknowledge the need to allow travelers to opt out of the system.

But even if the claims about the advances in biometric software and technology are true, the Office of the Inspector General has also reported that CBP consistently and substantially underestimated the cost of their biometric exit program to the American taxpayer. To close some of the funding gaps, CBP would have to depend on the airports and airlines to purchase the necessary biometric equipment and to provide staff to implement the program. In short, for CBP and TSA to achieve their goals, they must force American travelers to hand over their biometric data to private companies.

What's Next

TSA should not move forward on this plan without addressing the serious security concerns and without providing a reliable, convenient way for travelers to opt out of the program. Even if biometrics provided a reliable identification system for travelers, the kind of system and database the roadmap outlines could make it more difficult for people to travel, in direct conflict with the agency's mission "to protect the nation's transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce."

Police arrest 300+ in Paris ahead of mass Yellow Vest protests

© AFPA yellow vest protestor is searched by Riot police forces as he arrives near the Arc de Triomphe early on December 8, 2018 in Paris

More than 300 people have been arrested ahead of Saturday's Yellow Vest rallies in Paris, police say. It comes a day after authorities warned about "radicals" trying to exploit the movement and topple the government.

The nation is preparing for a new wave of mass protests that are gripping France for the fourth consecutive weekend. Some 89,000 officers are patrolling the streets across the country. Armored vehicles belonging to military police were also deployed to the heart of the French capital.

Ahead of the major protests, police announced that at least 354 people were arrested in the city.Authorities did not elaborate on the exact reasons for the detentions.

Earlier, Johanna Primevert, a spokesperson for the police prefecture, told RTL that 34 people have been taken into police custody. The officers found masks, hammers and stones while searching them, French media says.

The detentions come a day after French government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux warned that radicals are trying to exploit the Yellow Vest movement and overthrow the government. Reports in the French media also claim that Saturday's demonstrations may be hit by violence caused by both "radicalized... extreme right and extreme left."

France is still reeling after unprecedented violence on December 1, which resulted in street battles with law enforcement across the country. Over 130 people were injured and more than 400 arrested in the mayhem.

This Saturday, the Yellow Vest rallies continue unabated even after the government conceded to their demands and abandoned the fuel tax hikes and an increase to the fuel tax. The demonstrators are billing their planned action on Saturday as "Act IV. Stay on the course."

Color of outrage: Yellow Vests rallies sweep across France and abroad

© REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

[...]

Throughout France, over 1,300 demonstrators were detained as people in other regions have also risen up in protest.

A Yellow Vests leader detained in Grenoble.

One of the voices of the Yellow Vests, Julien Terrier, was detained during a rally in the city of Grenoble in southeastern France, the local police prefecture confirmed. He was among 18 people taken into police custody.

Later, up to 1,000 demonstrators marched to the local police station, chanting "free Julien Terrier."

1,000 march in Marseille

About a thousand protesters gathered in the center of the southern city of Marseille. The march was relatively peaceful. "We are not here to break anything, we have to march openly, if we see anyone who [violates the order], he will be excluded," one of the protesters said.

Yellow Vests occupied the center of the city, with police flocking to the area of the protest. "We want to ensure that people get together," one of the movement's leaders told the crowd.

Officers were seen in full gear getting ready to respond to clashes if necessary.

Unrest in Lyon

Residents in the country's second largest city of Lyon also seized their 'Yellow Vest' moment. While supporting the cause of the greater rallies, people also took to the streets against the rising cost of living. The demonstration has been marred by violence, with participants and police facing off with each other.

Amid the chaos, with tear gas and baton-wielding officers chasing down protesters, a woman - as bizarre as it may seem - was seen playing a fiddle.

The spirit of the Yellow Vests demonstrations has even reached neighboring Belgium.

At least 70 people were detained in Brussels this Saturday. Protesters gathered in Arts Lois and Porte de Namur districts in the center of the city. Police said the detentions were merely a "preventive measure."

Kneeling protester: A new symbol of the Yellow Vests?

© Reuters / Benoit TessierProtesters kneel in front French riot police near the Champs-Elysees Avenue at a demonstration by the "yellow vests" movement in Paris.

A yellow vest has firmly become a symbol of protest in France. Yet this Saturday demonstrators added something new - they kneeled in front of police, denouncing the humiliating arrests of high school students caught on video.

The town of Mantes-la-Jolie, west of Paris, has found itself at the center of a scandal after a controversial video showed police detentions of students from a local high school. The protesters were clashing with police and officers resorted to quite disputable measures during the arrests - they forced the detainees to kneel.

This fact may have been left unknown but for a camera which captured the teens, who were protesting the education reform, kneeling in mud with heads bowed and hands behind their heads. Some of them were lined up facing a wall. Police officers in full riot gear walked with batons among the students.

The footage stirred public anger, people compared it to an execution by firing squad and branded it as intolerable.

The situation found a receptive audience among Yellow Vest protests that are sweeping France and neighboring Belgium on Saturday.

People in yellow vests in Paris, Marseille and even Brussels are kneeling before officers, riot police and armored vehicles, amid tear gas.

That's how they express solidarity with these 150 teens with backpacks from Mantes-la-Jolie who were arrested.

The gesture has probably become another symbol of the whole movement, aimed to make the government finally listen to the voices of the people, not the rich.

© Reuters / Yves HermanYellow vests' protest in Brussels

© Reuters / Stephane MaheA protester faces off with French CRS riot police in Paris.

© Reuters / Jean-Paul PelissierProtesters as they take part in a demonstration in Marseille

© Reuters / Benoit TessierNear the Champs-Elysees Avenue

© Reuters / Stephane MaheDemonstrators kneel in front of French CRS riot police in Paris

© Reuters / Yves HermanA woman kneels in front of police blocking the street during the "yellow vests" protest against higher fuel prices, in Brussels, Belgium

People re-enact French students' arrest by police that sparked outcry

© AFPHigh school students re-enact student arrest in Mantes-la-Jolie during a demonstration in Paris

On their knees and with hands on heads, people in France have re-enacted the controversial arrest of high school students in Mantes-la-Jolie which stirred mass outrage.

Recent footage depicting rows of education reform protesters on their knees, with baton-wielding officers standing over them near Saint-Exupery high school, has gone viral. Uploaded on Thursday evening, it gathered thousands of angry comments online, with many likening the image to execution by firing squad.

On Friday, dozens of high school students showed up at the Place de la République in Paris to show their solidarity with the protesters. They re-enacted the arrest scene, kneeling with their hands behind their heads. Similar actions were held in Montreuil, an eastern suburb of Paris, and the city of Dijon in the east.

The students at Mantes-la-Jolie were forced to kneel by officers after being arrested for clashes with police. The unrest at high schools over education reform gripped the whole country. Some 700 sites were affected Friday, while 400 of them were completely shut down.

While speaking on the Mantes-la-Jolie case, Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer admitted that the images were "shocking," but also urged that they be treated in the broader context.

Man has hand BLOWN OFF in explosion as Yellow Vest rally descends into chaos

Screenshot from the Facebook video

Gruesome footage distributed by a pro-protest Facebook group appears to show a man cradling the mangled stump of his hand after an explosion at a Yellow Vest rally in Bordeaux. A total of 26 people were injured in the city.

As Yellow Vest protests swept through France on Saturday, some 4,500 people flooded the streets of Bordeaux. The tension began building up around 16:00 when some of the protesters started throwing rocks at police who responded by firing flash-balls.

As the situation gradually descended into chaos, a man was captured on video running towards a group of protesters holding his right hand after a particularly loud bang went off. As the man approaches, it appears that his hand is completely blown off, with only a bloody stump left. The footage was released by Facebook group France en colere (Angry France) that covered the latest mayhem. (WARNING: THE LINKED VIDEO IS EXTREMELY GRAPHIC)

Screenshot from the Facebook video

In another video, he is shown being rolled into an ambulance on a stretcher.

The deputy public prosecutor in Bordeaux, Olivier Etienne, confirmed that one of the protesters had suffered a serious injury to his hand. His current condition is unknown.

The French Sud Ouest daily reported that the man allegedly tried to recover a crowd-control grenade to throw it back at police when it exploded.

During Saturday's tumult, protesters erected barricades, set them on fire and ransacked the offices of several banks, including Societe Generale and BNP, as well as an Apple Store. A post office has also reportedly been looted.

The number of those detained in France's nationwide Yellow Vest protests on Saturday, has reached a staggering 1,723. In Paris, the major hotspot of unrest, scores were injured as rallies continued even after sunset.

Film from Ruptly news agency in the capital shows police facing off with demonstrators, who vented their anger well into the late hours. The footage captured officers chasing down demonstrators and later handcuffing them.

Some of them were dragged down the road by law enforcement and placed face down while surrounded by officers. Several people wearing the now iconic yellow vests are also seen in the video with their faces covered in blood.

According to the latest figures provided by the Interior Ministry, 135 people were injured in Paris alone, while the number nationwide has risen to 264. Police also took a beating, with at least 17 officers receiving injuries in the mayhem.

• Yellow Vests Rise Against Neo-liberal King Macron
• What do the protesters in France want? Check out the 'official' Yellow Vest manifesto