Privacy villains of the week: NASA and Northwest Airlines [priv]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 11:48:36 -0500
From: J Plummer <jplummer () consumeralert org>
Subject: [NCCP] Privacy Villain: NASA/Northwest redux

Privacy Villain of the Week: 
NASA-Northwest redux

After two years, the public has finally learned that Northwest
Airlines did indeed give the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration sensitive consumer data for use in a bizarre research
program that combined data-mining and "brain-monitoring" technology.

There was a more naive time when it seemed the 21st-century total
federal takeover of airport security would merely involve swarms of
overpaid, un-fireable federal employees harassing hapless harried
travelers with interminable baggage and body searches. But the dangers
of "mind-reading" technology didn't occur to even the most strident
skeptic. Or did it? Maybe we need to ask NASA.

It was revealed back in 2002 that scientists from NASA asked Northwest
Airlines for "system-wide Northwest Airlines passenger data from July,
August, and September 2001"
[<http://www.epic.org/privacy/airtravel/nasa/nasa2.pdf>]. The data was
to be used in the still-mysterious program the federal space agency
was working on with a commercial firm -- the idea was to use both
data-mining and "brain-monitoring" technology installed at airport
terminals to somehow identify "threats." The proposed brain-monitoring
technology would detect EEG and ECG signals from the brain and heart
and then have that data analyzed by software, in combination with
previously-floated plans to cross-reference passengers' travel
history, credit history, and other information from hundreds or even
thousands of databases as part of the Computer-Aided Passenger
Pre-Screening (CAPPS) program.

In a press release
<http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=9061>, Robert Pearce,
the Director of NASA's Strategy and Analysis Division, disavowed the
report, assuring the populace that "NASA does not have the capability
to read minds, nor are we suggesting that would be done." Yet another
NASA spokesman, Herb Schlickenmaier, confirmed that reading the
brainwaves and heart rates of airline passengers was a goal of NASA's
-- the thinking being that such data combined with body temperature
and eye-flicker rate could make a sort of super-lie detector. However,
the PowerPoint presentation
<http://www.epic.org/privacy/airtravel/foia/foia1.html> delivered by
NASA to Northwest in December, said NASA has "Non-invasive
neuro-electric sensors under development as a collaborative venture
between NASA Ames and commercial partner." This contradicts the NASA
statement that "We have not approved any research in this area." If
this is how NASA assembles policy, it's little wonder their hardware
assembly has a dismal track record.

Does the tweezer brigade
<http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,61008,00.html> really need a
weapon of this magnitude? And could it really work? What of those who
simply fear flying, or being frisked, or being forced to drink their
own breast milk? How often will NASA's scanners confuse such brain
waves with those of terrorists?

The federal travel checkpoints are rapidly moving past inconvenient
farce and into something more sinister. Instead of mandating security
procedures, bailing out airlines that failed in that area, and then
taking over the whole system themselves, the federal government should
back off and let airlines assume the full costs of security failure as
well as the benefits of respectful treatment of travelers. Consumers
can subject themselves to full-body-and-brain scans, opt for Concealed
Carry Air, or choose something in between, weighing privacy, security,
comfort, convenience and cost for themselves.

Such individual choice and flexibility has never been the hallmark of
the centralized, goal-oriented space agency. The folks at NASA have
apparently been so successful in their quest to quash private-sector
competition in space travel, that they feel free to use the tax
dollars of those they've left planet-bound to sift through travel data
and cook up hare-brained mind-reading schemes. And at least one
airline gladly helped them do so. If that doesn't make for Privacy
Villainy, nothing does.

--
The Privacy Villain of the Week and Privacy Hero of the Month are
projects of the National Consumer Coalition's Privacy Group. Privacy
Villain audio features now available from FCF News on Demand. For more
information on the NCC Privacy Group, see www.nccprivacy.org or
contact James Plummer at 202-467-5809 or via email. This report is
available online at
<http://www.nccprivacy.org/handv/040123villain.htm>.
  
  

-- 
James Plummer 
Policy Analyst 
Consumer Alert 
(202) 467-5809 
  
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