-- more on -- Millions more travelers could be flagged for intensive airport searches

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2003 09:56:13 -0400
> From: Barry Steinhardt <BSteinhardt () aclu org>
> Subject: Re: [IP] Millions more travelers could be flagged for intensive
>  airport searches
> X-Sender: Bsteinhardt () exch1 aclu org
> To: dave () farber net
>
>
> Dave,
>
> I thought IP readers my be interested in the fact sheet the ACLU put 
> together on CAPPS  II  for yesterday's press event The Five Problems With 
> CAPPS II: Why the Airline Passenger Profiling Proposal Should Be 
> Abandoned.http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=13356&c=206.
>
> Reason # 2 -- It won't work--  may be of particular interest to IP readers.
>
>  Effectiveness: This System Will Not Make Us Any Safer
> Why build CAPPS II if it won’t make us any safer?
>
> Even a known, wanted terrorist could sail right through this system simply 
> by committing identity theft (which as we all know is all too easy today) 
> and obtaining a false driver's license or passport (which is even easier). 
> For example, such a terrorist might present a driver’s license with their 
> own photograph, but the name, address, phone number and DOB of an innocent 
> person (data that for most Americans can be purchased online for about 
> $50). Nothing in the CAPPS II program would stop such a terrorist. This 
> system is like a Maginot line – the heavily fortified defensive frontier 
> constructed by the French before World War II, which was rendered useless 
> when Hitler’s army simply went around it.
> And even a tiny error rate would create huge problems. Each year, 100 
> million Americans fly, many of us more than once. Total passenger 
> transactions each year have been estimated to be as high as one billion. 
> CAPPS II would check every one of those transactions. Even if we assume an 
> unrealistic accuracy rate of 99.9%, mistakes will be made on approximately 
> one million transactions, and 100,000 separate individuals. Those mistakes 
> will result in not only a lot of innocent people coming under suspicion – 
> or worse – but will make it extremely hard to find the handful of real 
> terrorists amid the ocean of false positives.
> While these shortcomings are being ignored now, once this system is sold 
> to the American people, they will inevitably be used to justify demands 
> for an airtight, cradle-to-grave, biometric national identity and tracking 
> system that would change what it means to live in America (but in all 
> likelihood still fail to thwart terrorism).
>
> The full event can be viewed on CSPAN at http://www.cspan.org/.
>
> Barry Steinhardt
>
>
>
> Director Technology and Liberty Program
> American Civil Liberties Union
> 125 Broad Street,NYC 10004
> 212 549 2508 (v) 212 549 2629 (fax)
> BSteinhardt () aclu org

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