I imagine their main goal is to keep you talking. More questions they ask, the more you need to answer and the more they can watch your body language and responses for signals.

And completely misinterpret it: http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100526/full/465412a.html

"Yet a growing number of researchers are dubious — not just about the projects themselves, but about the science on which they are based. "Simply put, people (including professional lie-catchers with extensive experience of assessing veracity) would achieve similar hit rates if they flipped a coin," noted a 2007 report1 from a committee of credibility-assessment experts who reviewed research on portal screening.

"No scientific evidence exists to support the detection or inference of future behaviour, including intent," declares a 2008 report prepared by the JASON defence advisory group. And the TSA had no business deploying SPOT across the nation's airports "without first validating the scientific basis for identifying suspicious passengers in an airport environment", stated a two-year review of the programme released on 20 May by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of the US Congress."

Are you sure he wasn't just joking around? I've had a TSA officer joke around asking me if I hacked into their devices (I was wearing a hackathon t-shirt)

> Are you sure he wasn't just joking around?

One rule of thumb is that you Never joke with the airport security (1). So wouldn't that go both ways?

1) https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/oliver-burkemans-b...

So you're saying I should better not sport my new t-shirt in the airport?

http://www.tshirthell.com/funny-shirts/if-im-not-on-a-watchl...

My then-teenage brother once went through US immigration wearing a t-shirt branded with the initials of the then-popular brand, French Connection UK.

Needless to say the US immigration officials took some offense and asked him a bunch of questions. I'm not sure they realised it didn't say what they thought it did, even after we explained about French Connection.

These were obviously simpler times as I also as a teenager once went through US immigration wearing a Threadless Community Party t-shirt: https://www.threadless.com/product/383/the_communist_party

The dyslectic f*ck brand was and still is annoying. In Melbourne AU they had a 20 or 30 metre tall logo covering an entire wall of an industrial building. Very glad to see it gone.

A friend of mine got pulled aside for extra questioning at Newark in the mid-90s because he was wearing a t-shirt that proclaimed "Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast". I think the officer presumed it was some sort of drug reference.

What a guy.

I'm not going to tell you what you can and can't do. But a quick google should show you how wise that is. Or rather, isn't:

https://www.google.com/search?q=airport+offensive+tshirt

RIP the First Amendment.

Probably don't wear a shirt with blinking lights on it either.

http://boingboing.net/2007/09/21/mit-student-arrested.html

In what possible universe do you think that TSA/border security/etc. is a power-symmetric universe? Of course they'll joke around and abuse their power if they like it - you, me and everyone else they're inspecting are powerless to them and they'll happily use that fact.

I wouldn't say never, but you need to let them initiate it and it needs to be obvious. I've had them bust my chops before - some are funny people, and others are looking to seeing if you're too tense or acting odd.

I've noticed lately that there are now TSA agents in the security lines which are ostensibly there to help direct people, but you can tell they are very high social aptitude people and very smooth. They are feeling people out and seeing if anyone is super nervous or suspicious.

I noticed this before they instituted the "random arrow iPad." I'm not sure about their level of social aptitude though. I got sent to the quick screening line 5 or 6 times in a row, but the people I saw flagged for the slower screening were people who I thought looked calm but less whitebread than me. People with their hair dyed blue, holes in the knees, etc.

I think the person who is actually reading people is the person who checks your ID and boarding pass. Though honestly I think that process would be pretty easy to fool either way.

I agree with you in general, but it's important to keep in mind that border patrol and airport security are two almost completely unrelated things.

You don't, but there are jokes and jokes (and they certainly do joke sometimes)

From stories I heard airport security is more serious than CBP though

A couple of times I've managed to defuse TSA officers after they're convinced I'm not a danger to the country, and they turn into humans again. Once I was visiting just to meet a friend and we were planning on a road-trip up to Canada. The officer quizzed if we were going in order to do drugs (which is a thing apparently?), and when I answered in the negative he sighed, said "ah, I was young once too" and let me in...

I was there to do some training, to teach the guys there how to use Yocto, Qt, etc., and the officer asked me: "So you're coming in to teach us so we can take your job?" Needless to say that I was really confused.

Could be :) Unfortunately I was feeling really bad that day so I was a little paranoid.

I'm glad I don't work at Wikipedia, because after what happened to that guy I'd be tempted to detect if a request comes from any TSA terminal and serve midget porn instead :)