WASHINGTON--The U.S. Congress on Thursday took the first step toward
curbing a government computer system that will perform intensive background
checks on American citizens traveling by air.
Citing concerns about privacy, the Senate Commerce Committee voted to
increase congressional oversight of a secretive data-mining and passenger
profiling system under development at the Transportation Security
Administration. Delta Air Lines plans to begin testing the system at three
airports this month.
"A system that seeks out information on every air traveler or anyone who
poses a possible risk to U.S. security, and then uses that information to
assign a possible threat score to each one raises some very serious privacy
questions," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon. "It's a matter of good public
policy for the privacy and civil liberties implications of this program to
be reported to Congress."
Few details have been made public about the Bush administration's airport
security plans, which include a project called the Computer Assisted
Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS). It's not clear whether the
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) envisions a watch list
subjecting suspected terrorists and criminals to heightened scrutiny--or a
"no-fly" list that prevents specific people from boarding a plane. TSA says
that each air traveler will be rated as a red, yellow or green security risk.
Some of the information that has been made public shows that the TSA wants
airlines to provide electronically all the information they have about each
passenger's travel plans and type of payment. If a person is deemed a risk,
the information will be combined with "financial and transactional data,
public source information, proprietary data, and information from law
enforcement and intelligence sources" and stored in government computers
for 50 years, according to a Federal Register notice.
The legislation approved by the Senate committee on Thursday gives the
Department of Homeland Security three months to present Congress with a
report on how CAPPS would impact "the privacy and civil liberties of United
States Citizens." It would not halt the program, but the proposal would
require information such as how long the data on air travelers will be
retained, what privacy safeguards will be in place and how errors will be
corrected.
On Feb. 28, the TSA announced it had chosen Lockheed Martin to develop
CAPPS. In a statement at the time, the Department of Transportation said
"CAPPS is being designed with the utmost concern for the individual privacy
rights of American citizens."
Delta was the first air carrier to sign up to submit data on its passengers
to the government under CAPPS. In response, privacy activists have launched
a BoycottDelta.org campaign.
Wyden's legislation is an amendment to the Air Cargo Security Bill, which
the full Senate must approve before it goes to the House of Representatives
for a vote there.
http://news.com.com/2100-1029-992572.html?tag=fd_top
