The Transportation Safety Administration has begun using new ID and boarding pass verification equipment at a small number of airports, bringing a shiny new, bloated  acronym to the travel bureaucracy: CAT/BPSS (short for “Credential Authentication Technology/Boarding Pass Scanning System.”). And a “TDC” (Travel Document Checker) will be in charge of the process after you hand over your docs,  for good alphabet soup measure.

Or, we could send thousands of copy editors screaming into the night with this headline:  

As Blogger Bob explains on the TSA Blog: “This technology will scan a passenger’s boarding pass and photo ID, and automatically verify the names provided on both documents and then match and authenticate the boarding pass. The technology also identifies altered or fraudulent photo IDs by analyzing and comparing security features embedded in the IDs.”

The data collected is automatically permanently deleted, the TSA says. The new equipment will eventually roll out system-wide.

Commenters on Blooger Bob’s post aren’t, by and large, impressed. A sampler:

“Wait, are you serious? The automated process involves me handing my ID to one of your agents? So this is seriously going to be someone’s job? Taking an ID and scanning it? ”

“What is the inherent security risk of a fake ID or boarding pass, as long as all passengers and their belongings are screened for weapons? In other words, if passenger John Doe is going to be screened, who cares whether John Doe is really who he claims?”

“Exactly how much more of a delay will this cause in the already backed up TSA lines thanks to Whole Body Imagers which only do one thing, slow down screening.”