Print

Mail

wiki links

US wants full names, birthdays of airline passengers

Airline passengers soon will be asked to provide their full names and birth dates when they buy tickets, which the US government says it needs for a new computerized screening system.

The Bush administration is moving ahead with plans to implement the system, called Secure Flight, even though misgivings about passenger privacy and other issues raised in a congressional investigation have yet to be fully dealt with. A limited rollout of the program is set this year.

The US Congress passed a law that said the system could not go live until the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported it had met 10 criteria, including adequate privacy protections, accuracy of data, a system of redress and safeguards to ensure the system won't be abused or accessed by unauthorized people.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) failed, in March, to satisfy nine of the 10 criteria.

Justin Oberman, the TSA official in charge of the system, said the GAO based its conclusions on information collected in February, and the TSA has made great improvements since then.

For example, TSA set up a redress office that will be staffed with government employees who can field people's complaints that they have been misidentified as terrorists, he said.

"A lot has changed," Oberman said. "We're working very closely with GAO and intend to meet all 10 criteria when we start in August."

The government has been looking for ways to upgrade passenger screening since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the US. Previous attempts were scrapped amid fears the government would have access to too much personal information without sufficient safeguards to ensure it would remain private.

Secure Flight would allow the TSA to take over from the airlines the responsibility of checking passengers' names against lists of known or suspected terrorists. Before a flight will be able to take off, the airlines will send data about their passengers to the TSA, which will check the names.

In the initial phase-in stage, TSA plans to use data from two unidentified airlines unless Congress blocks the effort until the agency can show it has fixed problems identified by the GAO.

GAO sectional audit chief Kathleen Berrick said several committees have expressed interest in having her office do a follow-up report.

Bruce Schneier, a security expert who serves on the TSA-appointed oversight panel for Secure Flight, criticized the agency for moving ahead before showing the system works.

He said he will ask Congress to keep a close eye on the system.

Oberman said a Virginia company named Eagle Force has tested sample passenger information against commercial databases supplied by Arkansas-based Acxiom Corp. Acxiom stirred controversy after it shared information about JetBlue Airways' passengers, without their knowledge, with a defense contractor in 2002.

As part of the TSA's effort to implement Secure Flight, the agency soon will require airlines to solicit passengers' full names and birth dates. Passengers do not have to provide them, but if they don't there's a better chance they'll have to undergo more stringent screening at the airport, Oberman said.
This story has been viewed 1513 times.