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DHS wants more info from air travelers

by on27 October 2008

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Tracking more in government databases

As if traveling by air wasn’t already enough of a hassle, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has announced that it will be requiring more information from travelers starting next year. Under the new regulations air travelers must provide their birth date, full name and their gender when making flight reservations.

We’re not sure why including one’s gender is necessary. Are men (or women) more likely to be security risks on airplanes? Is it to weed out those pesky travelers with odd names that don’t identify them as male or female?

U.S. domestic airlines will be required to gather the additional information under the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) program formal security rule known as Secure Flight. After five years of delay, Secure Flight became a formal security rule last week. TSA is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

The result will inform the airline what to do: issue an unrestricted boarding pass, deny it, or issue one with enhanced screening requirements. The TSA claims that this data will not be stored for more than seven days, “in most cases.” At the onset of the program TSA will only prescreen for U.S. domestic travel. In 2009, the agency will assume responsibility for prescreening of international travelers, which is currently carried out by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Previously called CAPPS II (Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System) the Secure Flight program, was established after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Civil rights and privacy groups have slammed the program, claiming that it invades travelers’ rights to privacy and that the collection of such data is just a step toward Big Brother and restricting the Constitutionally guaranteed right to travel.

Part of the problem is that the process itself is secretive and so is the information that the government uses for determining traveler risk.

An earlier Government Accounting Office (GAO) report raised concerns about the accuracy and completeness of the data contained in the government terror database, the name-matching technologies used for Secure Flight and the lack of ability to deal with false positives.

Last modified on 27 October 2008
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