FC: Canada's proposed system for profiling air travelers

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 01 Feb 2002 11:33:03 -0500
From: Mychelle Tremblay <myt () cyberie qc ca>
To: declan () well com
Subject: Re: FC: Feds will begin testing massive system to profile air 
    travelers

Declan,

This Notice of Intent was published in the Canada Gazette on December 29,
2000.


http://canada.gc.ca/gazette/part1/ascII/g1-13552_e.txt

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORT

AERONAUTICS ACT

Notice of Intent

This notice is to advise the public of Transport Canada's intention,
pursuant to section 4.83 of the Aeronautics Act, as amended by Bill C-44,
An Act to amend the Aeronautics Act, to develop regulations that would
identify the information that an operator of an aircraft may provide to the
competent authority of a foreign state (for example, the United States) if
the laws of that foreign state require this information.

Subsection 4.83(3) of the Aeronautics Act authorizes the making of
regulations respecting the type or classes of information that may be
provided and specifying the foreign states to which the information may be
given. An outline of the proposal is presented in the schedule of this notice.

Proposals to regulate two classes of information about flight crew and
passengers are being considered. The first would consist of basic
information while the second would consist of additional information. An
operator of an aircraft could give the additional information only if the
competent authority of a foreign state specifically requested it. At
present, the only foreign state to which the regulations would apply is the
United States (U.S.).

Basic information about the passengers and crew members would include the
name, birth date, citizenship, gender, number of the passport and, if
applicable, U.S. visa or resident alien card. Individual passengers now
provide this information to U.S. customs officials when they land in the
United States or when being examined at preclearance inspection facilities
at major airports prior to the departure of their flight from Canada.

Additional information about the passengers that might be requested by the
competent authority includes the name of the travel agency that made the
arrangements, the date of ticket issue, itinerary cities, the destination
in the foreign state, seat assignment on the flight, the number of pieces
of baggage checked by the passenger, class of service and passenger
telephone numbers and addresses.

The President of the United States signed the Aviation and Transportation
Security Act into law on November 19, 2001. The American Act requires that
basic passenger information be provided in advance in respect of all
flights entering the United States and that, upon request, additional
information also be provided. The requirements under the American Act come
into force on January 18, 2002.

The U.S. Customs Service has not yet identified a definitive list of the
additional passenger information that must be provided to the United States
under the U.S. Aviation Security and Transportation Security Act. As a
result, only the proposal to provide the information contained in the
passenger name record and referred to in the Agreement on Air Transport
Preclearance between The Government of Canada and The Government of the
United States of America, signed January 18, 2001, is being considered at
present. Preliminary consultations with the U.S. Customs Service, carried
out through the U.S. Embassy, did not identify additional information that
would be required.

The American legislation may impose a burden on air carriers, depending on
the current method of data retention. If air carriers are required to
provide a subset of the data elements making  up their passenger name
records, the cost of changing hardware and programming to be able to do
this in real time could be substantial.

Interested persons may obtain more information or make representations with
respect to this Notice of Intent to the Minister of Transport within seven
days after the date of publication of this notice. All such representations
should cite the Canada Gazette, Part I, and the date of publication of this
notice. Each representation must be in writing and be sent to Mr. Jim
Marriott, Director, Security Policy and Legislation (ABA), Security and
Emergency Preparedness, Safety and Security Group, Department of Transport,
Place de Ville, Tower C, 330 Sparks Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0N8, (613)
996-6381 (Facsimile).

Persons making representations should identify any of those representations
the disclosure of which should be refused under the Access to Information
Act, in particular under sections 19 and 20 of that Act, and should
indicate the reasons why and the period during which the representations
should not be disclosed. They should also identify any representations for
which there is consent to disclosure for the purposes of that Act.

December 20, 2001

DAVID M. COLLENETTE

Minister of Transport

SCHEDULE

An operator of an aircraft departing from Canada or of a Canadian aircraft
departing from any place outside Canada may provide basic information about
the passengers and crew members to the competent authority in a listed
foreign state. Information in the passenger name record may be provided
only at the request of the competent authority.

INFORMATION ABOUT THE PASSENGERS AND CREW MEMBERS

 - The surname, first name and initial or initials

 - The date of birth

 - The citizenship or nationality or, failing these, the country that
issued the travel documents for the flight

 - The gender
 
 - The number of the passport and, if applicable, visa or resident alien card

INFORMATION FROM THE PASSENGER NAME RECORD

 - The date on which the passenger name record was created

 - If applicable, a notation that the passenger arrived at the departure
gate with a ticket but without a reservation for the flight

 - If applicable, the names of the travel agency and travel agent that made
the travel arrangements

 - The date on which the passenger's ticket for the flight was issued

 - If applicable, a notation that the passenger exchanged their ticket for
the flight

 - The date, if any, by which the ticket for the flight had to be paid for
to avoid cancellation of the reservation or the date, if any, on which the
request for a reservation was queued from the operator of the aircraft to
the ticketing office
 
 - The number assigned to the ticket for the flight
 
 - If applicable, a notation that the ticket for the flight is a one-way
ticket

 - If applicable, a notation that the ticket for the flight is valid for
one year and that is issued for travel between specified points with no
dates or flight numbers assigned

 - The city or country in which the travel included in the passenger name
record begins
 
 - The itinerary cities, being all points where the person will embark or
disembark
 
 - The name of the operator of the aircraft
 
 - The code of the operator of the aircraft and the identification number
for the flight
 
 - The destination in the foreign state
 
 - The travel date for the flight
 
 - Any seat assignment on the flight that was selected for the passenger
prior to departure
 
 - The number of pieces of baggage checked by the person to be carried in
the aircraft's cargo compartment on the flight
 
 - The baggage tag numbers
 
 - The class of service in respect of the flight

 - Any stated seat request in respect of the flight
 
 - The passenger name record number
 
 - The telephone numbers of the person and, if applicable, the telephone
number of the travel agency that made the travel arrangements
 
 - The address of the person and, if applicable, of the travel agency that
made the travel arrangements
 
 - The manner in which the ticket was paid for
 
 - If applicable, a notation that the ticket was paid for by a person other
than the ticket holder
 
 - If applicable, a notation that there are gaps in the itinerary included
in the passenger name record that necessitate travel by an undetermined method
 
 - Routing information in respect of the travel included in the passenger
name record, being the departure and arrival points, codes of the operators
of the aircraft, stops and surface segments
 
 - If applicable, a notation that the ticket is in electronic form and
stored electronically in the reservation system of the operator of the
aircraft

LIST OF FOREIGN STATES AND COMPETENT AUTHORITIES

United States, Commissioner of Customs




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