New and notes from around the interweb:
- WhatsApp began as a solution to a business travel problem, and Facebook’s acquisition of Whatsapp was forced to close because of a Lufthansa first class award ticket. Sadly Facebook plans to start scanning Whatsapp messages, bypassing encryption. [Update: Bruce Schneier now says he believes this is a false alarm.]
- Delta refuses to transport epileptic toddler’s support dog.. because it’s a pit bull, they don’t take pit bulls in the cabin. Which seems like a reasonable policy to me.
- Global entry applications can now take 100 days though most are processed much more quickly. Appointments can be hard to get, and LAX has stopped taking them altogether as agents get sent to the border. Once you’re conditionally approved try for a walk-in or to complete enrollment on arrival. Here’s a reminder by the way about why people are having their Global Entry revoked.
Copyright: andreyuu / 123RF Stock Photo - There’s a growing movement against facial recognition technology with three cities banning their governments from using it.
- CBS Marketwatch runs a rather mundane piece suggesting having credit cards means your credit card data can be stolen so signing up for more cards means more places your data can be stolen from. Using Google and Facebook does this too. And driving where traffic cameras can see you, having your picture taken by the DMV, signing up for CLEAR too. Do you have a social security number?
- Emirates President Tim Clark wrote an op-ed in which he gave the CEOs of United, Delta, and American a proverbial raspberry. (HT: One Mile at a Time)
- Man with Parkinsons had to crawl through London Heathrow airport on hands and knees
- The bags in the truck go round and round, round and round, round and round. The bags in the truck go…
Wife and myself just got GE. Took some hoping and praying but we got our conditional back in 3 days. Walked into the airport during their modified 4 hour daily window and got seen with no wait. In and out in 10 minutes. Cards arrived 5 days later. BWI. They seem to change their hours weekly without any correct publication or info on recording however. We almost missed their close time bc the wrong time was online.
I applied for our three kids (all under 14) three months ago and still haven’t received conditional approval (my wife and I both already have GE). I’m getting frustrated because we leave at the end of the month for Africa and really wanted everyone to have it. The process for kids shouldn’t take this long, especially when the parents already have it.
What’s wrong with a pit bull? A trained dog is a trained dog, period. Any untrained or unbalanced dog can be an issue. Pit bulls are no exception
The media have perpetuated the popular myth that certain breeds are more or less likely to harm others. A properly trained dog is less likely to cause an issue on a plane. An improperly trained dog is more likely. It’d be nice to point out that pit bulls are banned along with a large variety of other short-nosed breeds that are more prone to respiratory difficulties in flight, not because of behavioral issues. After UA’s famous dog deaths, airlines took a closer look at what animals they carried.
Good for Tim. The Big 3 should be called out for weasely their actions vis a vis the ME3…
Chicago (ORD) is the easiest interview slot to get for Global Entry. When I interviewed there several yrs ago, I was told they (ORD) had more people to do interviews than any location.
We’re based in the Bay Area, and the SFO Global Entry interview slots are really backlogged. While I did my interview on arrival, we ended up killing two birds with one stone and got my wife hers in MCO while on vacation. Really smooth process.