Ryan called American Airlines to ask them why I was asked to produce a dossier of my friends' addresses when I flew from London to the US last week. They responded, in part:
Mr. Doctorow exhibited specific behaviors and cues before and during our initial security screening that caused our screener to initiate a secondary screening process…
That said, our contracted screener veered from standard procedure when she asked for Mr. Doctorow to write the addresses of his destinations in the United States. She did clearly state that once the interview was completed, the address list would be destroyed in front of Mr. Doctorow or that he could have the list to keep. American Airlines absolutely does not register or record that type of personal data.
Two things are wrong about this:
- The supposed TSA policy requiring me to write out my friends' addresses wasn't just talked about by the screener, but also by her supervisor, who came by to lecture me about how this was for my own safety — if this was one rogue screener overstepping her authority, then why didn't her supervisor overrule her instead of sticking to the story that "the TSA requires this of us"
- At no time did the screener or her supervisor ever state that the list would be destroyed in front of me, nor that I could keep the list. In fact, all three AA security people I dealt with — the screener, her supervisor and the terminal manager — told me that they didn't know what would be done with the list after the interview, that they had no idea what AA's document-retention and data-privacy policies were
The letter Ryan received promised that I would receive a written response to my letter soon. I'll be interested to see if AA repeats these untruths in it. I'm also curious about the "behaviors" I exhibited: I went where I was directed and told the screener when I got to the podium that I had packed all my own luggage and kept it in my control since packing it. Is anticipating a security question a suspicious behavior?
(Thanks, Ryan!)
