http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20050823/ts_usatoday/battleescalatesoverfli erspersonaldata;_ylt=Aqz_YDm1A23Unom5lHXASzOGOrgF;_ylu=X3oDMTA4b3FrcXQ0BHNlY wMxNjkz Battle escalates over fliers' personal data
By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY Tue Aug 23, 6:56 AM ET The Homeland Security Department is making another push to get personal data on airline passengers in an effort to keep terrorists off flights. The lobbying effort comes months after the House and Senate, concerned about invading privacy, gave preliminary approval to a measure that would ban the department from tapping into credit reports, court files, shopping histories and other personal information for one year. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff wants Congress to scrap the pending ban so the government can make passenger information "more complete and accurate" when it compares names with those of suspected terrorists, according to department spokesman Russ Knocke. USA TODAY Chertoff: Checks would aid security. Chertoff is likely to face a tough battle in Congress. The ban has the support of key members of both political parties, including Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., a leading privacy rights advocate in Congress, said Monday that "it would be a mistake" to remove the ban. "Our privacy rights need more watchdogs, not fewer," Leahy said. "Data banks offer powerful tools for security screening, but they also raise privacy dangers." Passenger names are now checked by airlines against a government no-fly list, which excludes classified information about terrorists. Since early 2003, Homeland Security officials have sought to take over the process and add in-depth passenger background checks. The idea has sparked outrage from privacy advocates such as former Republican congressman Bob Barr, who labels it a government intrusion into "very personal data." Concerns over privacy last year helped kill a similar plan to check passenger backgrounds. The Homeland Security Department says detailed background checks would flag people who book flights using fake identities - and reduce the millions of instances when innocent people receive extra airport screening because their names closely resemble those of terrorism suspects. The debate is likely to intensify next month when Congress considers final approval of the one-year ban. The ban would stop the Transportation Security Administration from continuing tests conducted this year to see whether background checks using commercial databases improve comparisons of passenger names to watch lists. If you stop testing the system now, you stop short of having a full body of work," says TSA Assistant Administrator Justin Oberman. U.S. Congress Sabo: Stop testing proposed system. Rep. Martin Olav Sabo, D-Minn., wants the testing stopped. "The Department of Homeland Security hasn't shown that it's able to safely handle data from commercial sources so far," Sabo said. A congressional probe found in July that the TSA improperly stored 100 million commercial data records containing personal information on passengers after the agency said no data storage would occur. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> <font face=arial size=-1><a href="http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12hi1o6h8/M=362329.6886306.7839369.3040540/D=groups/S=1705323667:TM/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1124815910/A=2894321/R=0/SIG=11dvsfulr/*http://youthnoise.com/page.php?page_id=1992 ">Fair play? Video games influencing politics. Click and talk back!</a>.</font> --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
