What the TSA Can Learn from Internet Marketers

For the last couple years I have been pretty frustrated and confused about how the Department of Homeland Security has been operating. I understand that after 9/11 everything changed and we needed to immediately implement massive short term security restrictions until we could get a grip on what was going on. But now, 8 years later, why the need to keep those restrictions? We know who is attacking us, right? Or better yet we know who is NOT attacking us. I am an Internet Marketer. I see things pretty much as black and white. I target people based on the facts & numbers I have on what will give me the best return on my investment. I DO NOT target people who have or never will buy anything I am selling. In my 5 years of being in the ringtone business, with billions of clicks, and hundreds of thousands in sales, I can tell you that we get the best conversion by targeting people who are: Age: 18 to 26 Sex: Male I can also tell you that we get the lowest return on our investment by targeting people who are: Age: 45+ Sex: Female In weight loss, we target women, ages 21 to 55, who are caucasian. In dating, we target males, 30+ (for the best payout), all races. And the list goes on and on. Targeting people who give you the best return on your investment in the internet marketing industry is a no brainier. It's smart. It's also just common sense. Imagine if the same logic was used by the Department of Homeland Security. Before we look at who we want to target (terrorists) lets look at who we don't want to target. You could probably eliminate 95% of wasted resources with common sense and analytics. How many women, or how about people in general over the age of 65 have ever committed or attempted a terrorist act against the United States? How many US born citizens that travel more then 30k miles a year have committed or attempted a terrorist act against the United States? How many women with multiple small children have committed or attempted a terrorist act against the United States? I am no expert on air travel statistics and this is just a small list I could think of off the top of my head. Yet, I can't even tell you the number of people I have seen getting worked over by TSA agents that were so elderly they could barely walk on their own. Really? Is that a good use of our resources? Why in business when we target potential customer is it smart but when we bring up the same kind of process to the TSA we are sexists, racists, or whatever it is you can think of. IMO statistically, racial and/or sexual profiling air passengers, while not politically correct, is the only way that makes sense. It makes sense from a resource perspective and just being effective. Or am I way off base here?