CAPPS II Continues To Draw Fire 

Congress, the Bush administration and major airlines all say they want the same thing: a computerized passenger screening program that will keep dangerous people off airliners. But not all are pleased with the way the two-year-old project is taking shape. The Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, or CAPPS II, would rank all air passengers according to the likelihood of their being terrorists. But some say the project would violate privacy rights, while others are concerned it would cost the private sector too much money.

The House aviation subcommittee scheduled a hearing on the status of CAPPS II on Wednesday. Congress last year ordered its investigative arm to report on whether CAPPS II safeguards passenger privacy. The auditors reported last month that the government hasn't adequately addressed security and privacy concerns.

U.S. airlines are refusing to voluntarily turn over passenger data to the government so it can test the system. They echo their customers' concerns about government snooping and the possibility that people will be wrongly labeled as terrorists. The Air Transport Association, the trade group for major airlines, has come up with seven "privacy principles" that it says the government should follow in implementing CAPPS II.

The seven personal privacy safeguards for passenger prescreening programs advocated by major airlines are:

1. The Transportation Security Administration shall ensure that it only collects personal information from passengers that is (a) directly relevant to the aviation security purpose for which it is collected and (b) clearly necessary to achieve that purpose.
2. TSA shall ensure that personal information that it collects is accurate and that collected information is disposed of securely and promptly after the passenger's air transportation is completed.
3. TSA shall inform passengers: (a) why it is requiring the collection of the personal information; (b) how it will use that information; (c) the circumstances under which it will provide that information to third parties, whether those parties are private sector or governmental; and (d) its information retention and disposal policy.
4. The government shall only use collected information for aviation security purposes and shall not use the information for law enforcement purposes not directly related to aviation security.
5. TSA shall provide passengers with effective and expeditious means to (a) inquire about TSA's CAPPS II privacy policy; (b) access, consistent with national security considerations, their personal information and correct that information; and (c) resolve complaints about the collection, accuracy, processing or use of personal information.
6. TSA shall take necessary steps to keep personal information secure. Such procedures shall be designed to prevent the unauthorized access to, or loss, misuse, unauthorized disclosure or alteration of, such information.
7. TSA shall not implement CAPPS II for international flights until it obtains any necessary determinations from foreign data protection authorities that the collection, transmission and use of information that is collected in that country for CAPPS II is permissible.

ATA claims these guidelines seek to ensure the TSA collects only personal information pertaining to aviation security, stores it securely and gets rid of it as soon as travel is completed. The airlines also said that passengers must be allowed to access their personal information and correct any errors.

The TSA says it agrees that privacy must be protected. A privacy officer, Nuala O'Connor Kelly, has been hired to make sure federal privacy law is upheld. The agency won't hold on to passengers' records, except for people who might be terrorists. The TSA also says it has established a way for passengers to redress inaccurate information, though that remains to be tested.

The Business Travel Coalition, a group that wants to lower the cost of business travel, said in a statement that business would be disrupted if travelers were inadvertently snared by the system. The group also said that CAPPS II would burden corporations and travel agencies with higher costs.

"Firms in the travel industry distribution business face unknowable costs at this time to reconfigure their systems in accordance with the requirements of a CAPPS II," the coalition said.

The passenger screening program would check information such as a name, address and birth date against commercial and government databases. Each passenger would be given one of three color-coded ratings. Suspected terrorists and violent criminals would be designated as red and forbidden to fly. Passengers who raise questions would be classified as yellow and would receive extra security screening. The vast majority would be designated green and allowed through routine screening.

FMI: www.air-transport.org