Tim May:

These 50 kids will find their innermost thoughts and crimes "in their permanent records." When they apply for jobs in 15 years, when they seek political office, when they try to get security clearances.

eBlack, the new anonymous bidding service, has an offer for e2400 for a complete set of these files.

And yet we expect airport screeners to ignore past acts of terrorism by a wild-eyed fanatic boarding a plan, and observe strict neutrality, spending not one second more on him than on the guy taking the wife and kids to see grandma. The airport guards are supposed to forget the past and rely only on what limited information they can gather in the few seconds they have for inspection. Anybody notice the inconsistency here? Why support data repositories to keep people's past transgressions alive, while calling for willful ignorance on the part of those charged with protecting the lives of the flying public? Information is good. More is better. Airport security should know everything possible about those boarding the planes. Blacknet will gladly make the data available, for a fee. Neither Tim May nor anyone else can stop the flow of information.