Originally Posted by
doober
I probably missed it, but when/how did we learn that the TSA claims SSI in not following the Privacy Act requirements?
The TSA claimed exemption from some Privacy Act reporting requirements, but they are NOT exempt from data collection disclosure requirements. Others and I have posted these requirements from time to time.
The Privacy Act states that government agencies must identify and describe a "system of records" into which they enter Privacy Act-protected information. The TSA did identify a couple of systems of records in its documentation.
So, if a screeners demands your ID and records your personal information, he/she can be breaking the law in three areas.
- Failure to provide you with a written disclosure statement before taking your information -- This is the most common way screeners break the law on a daily basis.
- Failure to record your personal information in an approved system of records -- Screeners break this part of the law when they record your personal information on an unapproved data base (like those supervisors who claim they have to make a copy of a DL of every person who wants a complaint form). Simply copying your DL is also a violation.
- Failure to properly protect your personal information as the description of the system of records and the National Archives require. -- Screeners break the law when they leave the lists and logbooks with privacy information in unsecure locations.
The Privacy Act allows for fines and jail time for individual government employees who violate the Privacy Act.
The cop who demands your ID in response to a screener/supervisor must follow the same rules, except that they have an exemption from the disclosure requirement in the case of an "on-going" investigation. Other statutes such as
Terry govern these circumstances.
The cop who takes your license and gives it directly to the screener has just broke the law. One of the Privacy Act requirements is that the agency must disclose uses of your data, including other systems of records into which they can share your information. So, the act of handing your license or other ID from cop to screener constitutes a transfer of Privacy Act-protected information from one system of records (the police department) to the TSA. If it's not documented that this is permitted, the cop and the screener can be personally fined or thrown in jail.