A recent story on the interwebs talks about a new TSA feature being tested that would allow passengers with smart phones, laptops, PDAs to avoid long lines at security checkpoints by tracking how long people are stuck in security lines with the end goal of posting said wait times on websites and in airports across the country.

It works via the airports having tiny receivers near checkpoints which detect the serial numbers “chirped” by some electronic devices every 10-15 seconds – like smartphones – being carried by passengers. The receivers can then record the time when a passenger entered a security line and the time when the same passenger cleared the checkpoint.

“But civil-liberties experts worry that such a system enables the government to track people’s whereabouts. “It’s serious business when the government begins to get near people’s personal-communication devices,” said American Civil Liberties Union privacy expert Jay Stanley.” – even though the developers say only part of each serial number is recorded, which if course could change, and the numbers are claimed to be “quickly deleted”, which could change, and that travelers can set their devices so they don’t chirp this info, which many likely have no idea how to do.

We are big techi fans here, so the idea seems like a good one. Maybe if it could be posted on a web site like Google traffic flow map with yellow, red, green indicators indicating wait times.