TSA Must Automate Privacy Checks, IG Says

by Mickey McCarter, HSToday.com
Monday, 21 September 2009

Without tools, TSA cannot know if air passenger info leaks
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has made great progress in establishing privacy programs to protect the personal information of air passengers and others but it could go further by setting up automatic privacy tools, suggested the inspector general (IG) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently.

Further training for TSA employees specific to their jobs also would increase privacy protections for travelers as well as air cargo shippers and others whose personally identifiable information is often provided to the agency, said the IG in a Sept. 18 report, titled "Transportation Security Administration Privacy Stewardship."

(c) An individual may not enter a sterile area or board an aircraft if the individual does not present a verifying identity document as defined in �1560.3 of this chapter, when requested for purposes of watch list matching under �1560.105(c), unless otherwise authorized by TSA on a case-by-case basis.

(c) Request for identification ?(1) In general . If TSA has not informed the covered aircraft operator of the results of watch list matching for an individual by the time the individual attempts to check in, or informs the covered aircraft operator that an individual has been placed in inhibited status, the aircraft operator must request from the individual a verifying identity document pursuant to procedures in its security program., as provided in 49 CFR part 1544, subpart B or 49 CFR part 1546, subpart B. The individual must present a verifying identity document to the covered aircraft operator at the airport.

(2) Transmission of Updated Secure Flight Passenger Data . Upon reviewing a passenger's verifying identity document, the covered aircraft operator must transmit the SFPD elements from the individual's verifying identity document to TSA.

(3) Provision of Passenger Resolution Information . If requested by TSA, the covered aircraft operator must also provide to TSA the individual's Passenger Resolution Information as specified by TSA.

(4) Exception for minors . If a covered aircraft operator is required to obtain information from an individual's verifying identity document under this paragraph (c), and the individual is younger than 18 years of age and does not have a verifying identity document, TSA may, on a case-by-case basis, authorize the minor or an adult accompanying the minor to state the individual's full name and date of birth in lieu of providing a verifying identity document.

(d) Failure to obtain identification . If a passenger or non-traveling individual does not present a verifying identity document when requested by the covered aircraft operator, in order to comply with paragraph (c) of this section, the covered aircraft operator must not issue a boarding pass or give authorization to enter a sterile area to that individual and must not allow that individual to board an aircraft or enter a sterile area, unless otherwise authorized by TSA.