Briefs

Washington Post (06/14/03) P. E1; O'Harrow Jr., Robert

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), partly in response to hundreds of written complaints from people and organizations, has revised plans for a second-generation Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS II) in order to reduce its intrusiveness, according to documents and government officials. An earlier CAPPS II draft called for analysis of passenger records through federal computer systems and artificial intelligence, and indicated that officials wanted the authority to broadly use such records. The revised version would require each passenger to reveal their name, address, birthday, home phone number, and passenger name record. Chosen details about each passenger would be given to commercial data services that would deliver a risk score determining whether each passenger is who he or she claims to be and has roots in the community; the draft privacy notice says that the commercial services would not be permitted to hold onto the scores in a "commercially usable form." The amended CAPPS II draft will likely include the appointment of a "passenger advocate" to handle complaints about various problems, while passengers would be screened by a "black box" system containing records about suspected terrorists. Center for Democracy and Technology staff counsel Lara Flint notes that this announcement is a positive development, but is still awaiting solid evidence that TSA is following its promises. The draft privacy notice declares that "TSA recognizes that inaccuracies in the commercial data may exist and that the CAPPS II system must allow for and compensate for such inaccuracies." Some privacy experts are still unsure even with the new rules, because a great deal about CAPPS II remains covert.

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In related news, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has ceased testing its CAPPS II program, the controversial airline passenger screening system announced earlier this year, pending a thorough privacy policy review, according to several sources contacted by Internetnews.com.

Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which has been sharply critical of the data mining program, said Friday his organization has received information "from inside the DHS" that a CAPPS II moratorium will be declared.

Bill Scannell, who organized an Internet website calling for a boycott of Delta Airlines, which was testing the program at unidentified airports, was also declaring victory. His site says officials at the "highest levels of the Department of Homeland Security" confirmed the moratorium.

Here is the full story from Internetnews.com.