Privacy International
Australia Post require you to "verify" yourself to send any mail abroad; regardless of them saying "above 500g" they actually verify every letter as well, which means you get a great big yellow stamp on the back. Verification can be done by credit card, etc. It's completely meaningless as far as I can see, and causes great hassle for everyone, my girlfriend included.
UK nomination Ð re national railway corporation
I'd like to nominate (UK railways giant) Railtrack, or whatever they're called these days, for their blanket refusal to put litter bins on station platforms ever since the IRA put a small bomb in one at least a decade ago. Whenever I ask (approximately yearly) when we're getting our bins back, I get told that they are not coming back yet "for security reasons". I'm not told what the security reasons actually are, however.
The stupid thing is that Railtrack have bins in some of their toilets, there are bins on many of the trains, and at least one station I use regularly has taken to hanging up a black plastic bin bag to try to keep the litter down. But fixed bins? No, they're a security risk ...
I nominate the Ronald Reagan Center for Free Trade here in Washington for the Stupid Security award. The building is a large conference center, and it has a food court. In order to enter, you have to show your driver's license. This action apparently proves that you are not a terrorist threat, and that you can be granted access to a hamburger and fries in the food court.
Hi, my nomination for stupid security is budget Irish Airline Ryan Air. They demand photographic ID, even for internal flights (fair enough) - they accept International Student ID cards - easily gotten hold of - but do not accept UK Armed Forces cards - which are only available to serving members of the UK military.
One story covering this is http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/30-1-19103-23-37-50.html
Last September 2002, I was flying through Heathrow Airport. Just ahead of me in the queue at the hand luggage X-Ray checkpoint was an elderly gentleman of Mediterranean appearance whose bag contained some items of interest to the security staff.
Firstly they found about a dozen disposable butane gas cigarette lighters, which they confiscated on the grounds that these were not allowed as either hand or hold luggage. Why are these lighters sold at airports ?
Then they found about 4 small screwdrivers of the sort used to fit plugs to electrical devices, still in their cardboard and plastic blister packs. These were allowed, provided that the gentleman went downstairs and checked his bag in as hold luggage. Are these small screwdrivers more of a risk than the cutlery and glassware and glass bottles available on any flight ?
The third item was a dual quarter pound cellophane wrapped cardboard package of loose leaf Chinese tea. Unfortunately, it was of a well known variety known as Gunpowder Tea, and had this printed on the packaging.
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=Gunpowder+Tea
Obviously this was of such importance, that, despite already forcing the passenger to check his hand bag as hold luggage, it was decided that the tea was allowed, but that the evil word "Gunpowder" was not. Consequently the security staff then rummaged around (thereby delaying me and the rest of the queue) and found a plastic bag into which they decanted the fragrant tea leaves, and confiscated the cardboard packaging !
I am submitting the following Stupid Security experience to the Stupid Security Competition.
It was the last game of an otherwise disastrous season for the Cincinnati Bengals at Paul Brown Stadium. A friend was nice enough to invite me as she had an extra ticket. I accepted because I had never visited the new stadium and was anxious to see it.
When we arrived at the stadium a band was playing outside and we stopped to listen. I purchased a bottle of water there (at a ridiculously high price, I might add) and took two pain relief pills to relieve my headache. It was a very windy and cold day.
It was finally time to enter the stadium and find our seats. We stood in line and I noticed that, in addition to the ticket takers, there were several police officers and security guards present, as well. I handed my ticket to the ticket taker and one of the security guards said something that I didn't understand. (the high winds were causing my hair to fly out at a 90 degree angle!). I started to go on through, when the security guard became belligerent with me and the ticket taker stuck out his arm to prevent me from passing. It was the bottled water they were making the fuss over. Bottled water? I still had 3/4 of it left. I said, "Excuse me? What is the problem?". A policeman walked over....this was getting intense. I said, "What is wrong?". The security guard said, "Throw the water in the trash or you will have to leave."
Now, I had purposely left my purse in the car so as not to be delayed by a purse search. I had some items in my pockets - lip balm, keys, ID, money, etc. But, I had just spent close to $4.00 for a bottle of water and that was an issue?
I asked why I could not take my water inside since I had just purchased it from an authorized vendor on the stadium grounds and it was very expensive. Meanwhile, the people behind me were making comments like, "Come on Lady", and my friend was clearly embarrassed. It was apparent at this point that my bottled water was a security problem and they obviously had a policy of some sort regarding taking a bottle of water into the stadium. But other people were being allowed to enter freely with an open beer in their hand!
Confused, a bit aggravated yet intimidated, I "caved" under the pressure and tossed my water into the trash. This diffused the situation and I walked on into Paul Brown stadium.
I asked my friend what the big deal was about a small bottled water. After taking a drink of her beer, she admitted she had no idea unless there was a possibility that it contained straight liquor or some sort of clear chemical had caused them to implement that policy. Who knows?
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
On my way back to Seattle from San Diego, I picked up a soft-serve ice cream before getting in the security check line. When I made my way to the scanning area, the security officer noticed my ice cream and said I had to throw it away. I'm thinking, if I put something metal in my ice cream, the metal detector would find it, so why throw it away? I protested, saying I'd take it through the scanner of course. This didn't help. Then I noticed that the guy in the next scanner area just walked through with a cup of coffee. I pointed that out. The security officer didn't budge. Apparently, coffee is OK, but ice cream is bad.
My nomination for the stupid security award is the Sacramento International Airport. On the escalator ride to the gates, if you look up you can see a sign with an old fashioned cartoon round bomb with the fuse sticking out of it and an International NO symbol over it. I can only imagine how many bombs have been taken back to the bad guys car because they saw that sign. It's nice to know that we are being protected by such signage.
A large health insurance company that provides healthcare benefits to over 8 million people has just issued bright yellow boxes to most of its roughly 15,000 employees. These boxes are labeled "DESKTOP CONFIDENTIAL BIN" in letters 3cm tall. They display prominently our new hero of privacy protection, the masked and strongly-clefted-chinned "Captain Confidential", who instructs us "It's up to YOU to protect (company XYZ)'s confidential and proprietary information", presumably by placing all of it in these bright yellow boxes so it will be cleverly hidden from prying eyes.
I'm not sure is NASA needs to be picked on any than it already is, but here I go.
In November of 2002, I went Kennedy Space Center in Florida to watch a shuttle launch. I purchased tickets to see the launch from the viewing area provided by NASA. When I purchased the tickets, I was also given a sheet of instructions on when to arrive and what I could and could not bring. Items you could not bring included backpacks. When I arrived, sure enough they were not allowing in backpacks. but they were allowing just about every other kind of bag, from really large women's purses to diaper bags and even shopping bags. One guy even had a piece of rolling luggage! But felt safe knowing none of those menacing backpacks were allowed in!
While Washington DC gets missiles and planes to protect them from terrorists, the rest of us are told to use duct tape and plastic sheeting. What the hell good is that gonna do us.
This so-called bright idea is being suggested by the Bush regime. References to it: The news media.
You probably will get a million submissions about this one.
I'd like to nominate the Goverrnment of Australia for the Privacy International Stupid Security award.
In late 2001, the Australian Government began a domestic publicity campaign intended to educate citizens about risks to national security introduced by terrorism. This is despite the fact that, to date, there are no proven instances of any terrorist activity whatsoever targeted at Australia.
The campaign included the introduction of a toll-free number which Australians can call to report instances of "suspicious" activity to a call centre in Australia's capital. No suggestions have been provided to help Australians determine what, exactly, constitutes "suspicious activity". As a result, the campaign has been confusing to the Australian population, who have steadfastly refused to take it seriously.
More recently, the federal Government sent an information package to every home in Australia which contained a booklet and (wait for it!) a refrigerator magnet on the theme of suspicious activity to remind everyone about the toll-free number. Political leaders in most State Governments laughed it off, and recommended that their citizens write "return to sender" on the package, or stuff it unopened into a new envelope addressed to the Prime Minister (without a stamp).
There has also been a booklet produced to tell people how to protect themselves from chemical and biological attacks (including such gems as using gaffa-tape to seal up their windows and doors!). Why so many millions of dollars are being spent on distributing this stuff is anyone's guess, because there has -never- been -any- suggestion at any point in Australia's past that we'd ever be the target of a chemical or biological attack.
Just to be sure: Australia's way of life is not under threat; there have been no terrorist threats against us; there have never been any terrorist incidents against us. The content of the publicity campaign has been simply bizarre in that context; the only rational explanation anyone can come up with is the slightly (but only *just* slightly) humorous view that the Americans have become paranoid about terrorism, and Australia naturally follows whatever the Americans do so we need to become paranoid about terrorism too.
See http://nationalsecurity.ag.gov.au/www/nationalsecurityHome.nsf/HeadingPagesDisplay/National+Security+Public+Information+Campaign?OpenDocument for more information, including PDFs of the pamphlets which have been distributed, copies of TV, radio and newsprint commercials, and other simply hilarious crap like that.
Having personally experienced other useless security measures at airports and other public places, I'm pretty confident that this security measure, which goes beyond public places and greets everyone in Australia in their homes, on TV and Radio, and in newspapers and magazines, is a surefire winner for your competition.