Profiling system to be less intrusive
WASHINGTON – In a concession to privacy advocates, the government on Thursday announced plans for a computerized profiling system for air travelers that would be less intrusive than previously envisioned.
“We will meet the goal of improving security,” said Transportation Security Administration chief David M. Stone, vowing a more thorough and accurate system.
“We will be protecting privacy and civil liberties,” he added, promising that people wrongly suspected would be able to clear their names.
The government said it would call the new system “Secure Flight” instead of continuing to refer to it by the obscure-sounding acronym CAPPS II. CAPPS stands for Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening.
The current profiling program, known as CAPPS, flagged most of the Sept. 11 hijackers for additional searches at the airport. But that system has been criticized for snaring many innocent travelers as well, a weakness that led some to discount its warnings.
About 15 percent of the nearly 2 million domestic air travelers each day are now pulled aside for more intrusive searches. That would drop to about 5 percent with the new system, Stone said.
Privacy advocates said the announcement was a promising sign, but cautioned that many of the details have yet to be revealed. The government has already spent about $100 million on the project.
“This is certainly a step in the right direction …but this kind of thing bears close scrutiny before we can make an ultimate judgment,” said Jay Stanley, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union. “It still poses threats to our liberties, even if those threats are not as immediate as they would have been under the previous system.”
The Bush administration was also under pressure from the Sept. 11 Commission. The bipartisan panel, which investigated the terrorist attacks, had urged the government not to get bogged down in a protracted debate over privacy and to instead make immediate – if less sweeping – improvements.
The government had announced in July that it was scrapping its plans for CAPPS II, following criticism that the program would unduly invade passengers’ privacy. The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office had also criticized CAPPS II, saying in February that “the system may not meet expected requirements, may experience delayed deployment and may incur increased costs.”
Stone said the government expects to begin testing the new profiling system in the fall and plans to phase it in next year.
Under the system, the government will take over from the airlines the responsibility of comparing passengers’ names against the thousands of names on security watch lists. Because of fears of leaks, intelligence agencies now withhold the names of some suspects from the airlines.
The information provided to the airlines when passengers make a reservation will be electronically transmitted to the government. In addition to the passenger’s name, the “Passenger Name Rec-ord” can include phone number, address, hotel and car reservations, frequent-flier program information and other details.
In cases where a passenger’s name appears to be a close match to a name on a security list, the government will use the detailed reservation information to try to determine whether the passenger should be considered a threat.
“We will have the ability to take the data and resolve those ambiguities,” said Stone. “Right now that depends on the talent you’ve got at the ticket counter.”
Most of those passengers flagged by the system would be subjected to closer searches. A very small number would not be allowed to board and could even face arrest. The agency would set up an appeals process for those wrongly suspected.
Some passengers would still be randomly selected for additional screening. “A random element to any security system is absolutely critical,” said Stone, because it can serve as a check on the system.