CAPPS II Commentary
 

I found the article very interesting but TSA and Congress will ignore the reports and we will be "showing our papers" soon. The right to travel will soon be gone. :(

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/ramasastry/20040317.html


A Death Knell for Airline Passenger Profiling?
Two Government Reports Highlight the Problems Plaguing CAPPS II
By ANITA RAMASASTRY
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Wednesday, Mar. 17, 2004

Since the September 11 terrorist attacks, improving aviation security has been a priority for the federal government. Among the most controversial proposals to address it is the Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening System II (CAPPS II).

CAPPS II is designed to use commercial and government data to verify passenger identity, and to decide whether individual fliers pose security risks. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is the agency tasked with implementing this program.

The program was initially intended to detect terrorists and keep them off airplanes. In August 2003, however, TSA announced that CAPPS II would also serve as a law enforcement tool to identify individuals wanted for violent crimes.

Based on privacy concerns that I have discussed in a previous column, Congress voted to block funding for CAPPS II unless the TSA could satisfy eight criteria relating to privacy, security, accuracy and oversight. (TSA may, at this time, move forward in testing CAPPS II, however.) In addition, Congress also asked the General Accounting Office (GAO) to conduct a review of CAPPS II to determine whether it met the relevant criteria.

This February, that report came in. And it concluded that CAPPS II has numerous problems, as I will explain.

Then today, March 17, a second report was released by the DHS. It confirmed that the TSA was involved in the transfer of JetBlue Airways passenger information to a Department of Defense subcontractor, Torch Concepts, for use in a data mining study (which I also discussed in an earlier column). Moreover, the DHS report found that, "The TSA employees involved acted without appropriate regard for individual privacy interests or the spirit of the Privacy Act of 1974."

As these two reports suggest, and as I will argue in this column, CAPPS II should not go forward unless it incorporates comprehensive further measures to protect privacy and to provide security for the data in the government's possession.

This is an election year for every member of the House of Representatives.

How about writing your state reps and telling them that you will tell all your friends to vote them out of office unless they take positive action (they have five months) to stop CAPPS II?

Travel tips:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/travel.htm

New proposed bumper sticker:

DUMP _________

Use a waterproof marker to write in the name of the incumbent politician of your choice.

Unfortunately, in some jurisdictions such a bumpersticker would get you pulled over and searched. :(

Well, if that is what you suspect to have happened and are willing to assign some resources (time, money, etc.), you can always file a complaint and start getting the oversight persons breathing down said power-trip abuser's neck. Voter intimidation and campaign-related intimidation would not find many friends in federal courts or even with the careerists in the DoJ.

One word of warning, law enforcement personnel are not unknown to act out on vendettas for past complaints. Complaint-related insulation is best when you are an absolute law-abider, don't spend too much time in a given jurisdiction, you are not a highly visibile minority and/or your plates cannot be, at first glance, linked to your name (e.g., rental car). The smaller the jurisdiction, the more problems you will have. And local judges have a default disposition to accept law enforcement's word over your word.