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July 31, 2003
Airline Searching
Looking online today, I found a rather interesting article (and here) discussing the benefits of the airline profiling mechanism used in CAPPS (Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening) versus sheer mathematical statistics. The article cites a paper by two MIT graduate students (Samidh Chakrabarti, 23, and Aaron Strauss, 22) who claim that using random searches would prove to be statistically more accurate, and proceed to prove this through a series of mathematical equations.
My favorite part of the article comes from the review by Doug Laird, one of the architects of the CAPPS system. His statements to defend the system are classic denial, falling back towards "the information is classified." While the MIT students may have made assumptions, it sounds like their mathematics are not. The real problem is that we, the public, are unable to check, and as such Mr. Laird's statements are unsubstantiated.
Read the article, it's worth your time.
Posted by Dan at July 31, 2003 10:35 PM