Feds plan to rachet up demands for air passenger info [priv]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8504-2004Jan11.html

U.S. to Push Airlines for Passenger Records
Travel Database to Rate Security Risk Factors

By Sara Kehaulani Goo
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 12, 2004; Page A01

Despite stiff resistance from airlines and privacy advocates, the U.S. 
government plans to push ahead this year with a vast computerized system to 
probe the backgrounds of all passengers boarding flights in the United States.

The government will compel airlines and airline reservations companies to 
hand over all passenger records for scrutiny by U.S. officials, after 
failing to win cooperation in the program's testing phase. The order could 
be issued as soon as next month. Under the system, all travelers passing 
through a U.S. airport are to be scored with a number and a color that 
ranks their perceived threat to the aircraft.

Another program that is to be introduced this year that seeks to speed 
frequent fliers through security lines in exchange for volunteering 
personal information to the government.

The two new initiatives will augment a system introduced last week to 
fingerprint and photograph millions of foreign visitors on arrival in the 
United States.

Privacy and consumer advocates worry that both programs could be 
discriminatory because they subject airline passengers to different levels 
of scrutiny. Certain travelers, such as non-U.S. citizens, could face 
additional questioning under the program known as CAPPS 2, or the second 
version of the Computer Assisted Passenger PreScreening Program, some 
organizations say. Business travelers who typically pay high prices for 
their seats will likely get an easier pass through security in the 
"registered traveler" program.

[...]

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