Thu, Oct 23, 2008
Aims To Reduce False Positives Against "Watch List"
If you've ever been delayed getting
through an airport because your Irish grandmother or two-year-old
son turned up on the TSA's terrorist watchlist, there's finally new
hope.
The Associated Press reports Homeland Security Secretary Michael
Chertoff announced Wednesday the final rule for a program called
Secure Flight, which would validate your information to reduce the
chances you'll be mistaken for someone else on a watch list.
Secure Flight seeks to improve the way the list works by using
full names, sex and birthdate. That way, if there's another person
out there with your name, and he's on the watch list... unless he
has the same middle name and birthday as yours, you shouldn't be
confused with him at the airport.
"We know that threats to our aviation system persist," Chertoff
said. "Secure Flight will help us better protect the traveling
public while creating a more consistent passenger prescreening
process, ultimately reducing the number of misidentification
issues."
Obviously, turning over the more precise information when you
fly is also a half-step to identity theft if the system's security
is compromised. That's why Secure Flight was delayed.
Privacy advocates heard the Bush administration was going to
test it with real data, and wanted safeguards. The program has now
been tested and reviewed, and will come with a formal privacy
policy for use of the information.
AP reports the government has spent a total of $240 million to
implement and improve the watchlist program since the 9/11 attacks,
and another $82 million is budgeted for fiscal 2009.
More than 43,000 people have formally complained to the TSA that
their names are on the list by mistake.
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