"It's really Spy v Spy ... each side is one step ahead for a short time, and then it reverses."

Or it's just scaremongering, the same motivations as the Muslim ban -- the ban on people, not electronics on flights from Muslim nations.

Good post, Nikki.

Personally, I don't worry about having an easily replaced item stolen. Your data--photos, emails, etc.--isn't on your iPad, it's on the cloud, so you'll be out just the device. That is annoying, but not disastrous, and unlikely (statistically) in any event.

I wouldn't put a laptop in checked luggage, however, because of the jostling. And I do wonder how business travelers will cope.

>The most worrisome thing in that article is about their problematic background checks on their employees:( <

Which brings up the point of how they do or don't check the ground crew/TSA personnel. They're so busy checking passengers going in the front door while at the same time leaving the back door wide open. I wouldn't mind security theatre as much if I knew that all background employees were heavily screened and checked, too.

How do you know they're not? I assume that the governments of the world aren't required to run their procedures by you, although I suppose I could be wrong about that.

"How do you know they're not?" - I thought it was well known that ground staff are not required to go through

https://www.usatoday.com/story/trave...yees/78008538/

Really annoyed the air crew, who do have to undergo screening:

http://www.askthepilot.com/tsa-arres...simo-vignelli/

Hit the wrong key...

Should have read:

"How do you know they're not?" - I thought it was well known that ground staff are not required to go through TSA screening, although it seems there has been some tightening up lately.

TSA? So just in the US?

My point is that this sort of bewaring goes on around here without a lot of facts to back it up. Theft from checked luggage may or may not be a big issue, we just don't know, because most people don't check their valuables.

We may be about to find out.

There's a reason many have nicknamed Heathrow as Thiefrow.

@NewBe - So when the Wall Street Journal writes about "the persistent problem of luggage looting" you decide they are fantasizing?

No need to get defensive, just provide a link, please. So far, all I see here is anecdotal.

I already did, on May 14. Try reading the whole thread.

Try getting a life, lol.

I have an ancient kindle [not sure of the model, it has no backlight though] and despite masochistic [rather than sadistic] tendencies, I have never yet managed to send an email on it, though it does have the facility for me to do so, because the keyboard is so incredibly difficult to use.

You can receive emails on it though, which is where the danger lies I suppose.

<i>...which is where the danger lies I suppose</i>

How exactly?

There will be no ban on electronics on flights from Europe for at least another week.
European countries are still not convinced of the risk, and whether it outweighs the risk of Lithium batteries in the hold, or of a bomb in a laptop in the hold.
There will be more talks next week in Washington.

Actually for at least one poster on this thread the "real danger" is writing a trip report and having that poster tell you all the things you should have done, how THEY did it, and how much BETTER it was.

I let you guess who that person might be. Worrying about a Kindle is nothing compared to that experience I can assure you.

You can receive emails on it though, which is where the danger lies I suppose.>>

because the kindle could in theory be sent an email that could activate something else electronically is my guess.

No, nothing to do with emails. See, e.g. http://time.com/4708332/laptop-ban-e...ional-flights/

EU and US DHS officials met in Europe today.

Nothing to announce, just a joint communique that they will meet again in DC next week.

One big pushback from the EU is that they don't want all those lithium batteries in the cargo hold.

Supposedly this intel that is driving this decision has to do with the 2015 Russian jet which was downed by a bomb over Egypt and a soda can bomb that was detonated somewhere in the ME or Africa.

So no country chose to do anything with this until the Trump administration.

I get the laptop issue but an iPad mini (or game console) is not much bigger than an oversized cell phone. So I'm not buying size argument. Of course I don't really buy that fluids pose a huge risk either. fine line between smart and crazy when it comes to TSA...