blog.px

from eff.org

TSA Stops Deleting "Secure Flight" Records, But Drags
Feet on Project Transparency

Washington, DC - After receiving hundreds of requests from
Americans asking to know what personal information the
government has obtained about them, the Transportation
Security Administration (TSA) told passengers that it
"does not have the capability to perform a simple
computer-based search" to locate individual records.

TSA revealed last fall that it would use private passenger
data from all domestic airline flights taken in June of
2004 to test its troubled "Secure Flight"
passenger-screening system.  In response to a fruitless
Privacy Act request by four Alaska residents, EFF
encouraged other airline passengers to request their
own files.  TSA recently began notifying the passengers
who filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Privacy
Act requests that it lacks the ability to easily search
its own records.  TSA also said that it would close such
requests unless people provide additional detailed
information, such as the air carrier, the dates of
travel, and their phone numbers - part of the data that
passengers were seeking in the first place.

"TSA is failing to follow the law," said EFF Staff
Attorney Matt Zimmerman.  "The Freedom of Information
Act and the Privacy Act place very clear obligations
on government agencies for searching their records, and
TSA has simply said that it doesn't want to go through
the effort.  It's bad enough that Secure Flight has
repeatedly failed to show that it can be a useful tool
to strengthen airline security.  However, that doesn't
excuse the federal government from telling Americans
about the private information it has gathered and
used to test the project."

In light of the high volume of record requests that it
has received, TSA recently agreed to stop deleting the
passenger data it obtained for testing Secure Flight
until it processed its backlog of requests.  However,
TSA told initial requestors that some of their data had
already been deleted.

Secure Flight, a passenger-profiling system aimed at
identifying security risks, is the successor of the
controversial "CAPPS II" program that was cancelled
in the wake of questions about its cost, effectiveness,
and impact on privacy and civil liberties.  The Secure
Flight screening process would involve comparing
airline passenger reservation data with an interagency
terrorist watch list to determine who should be subject
to more invasive screenings or arrest.  After
repeatedly misleading Congress and the public about
its intention to use data provided by commercial data
brokers to supplement the watch list, TSA recently
announced that it would not use such data in the
program for the time being.  Despite the controversy
surrounding the project, TSA has stated that it is
moving forward this fall with plans for a partial
roll-out involving two airlines.


For this release:
<http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2005_09.php#004015>

For more about Secure Flight:
<http://action.eff.org/secureflight>