Abstract

No-Privacy Zone

This author considers controversies surrounding the decision of the United States Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to upgrade the nation's airport security system with data-mining technology designed to catch potential terrorists before they board commercial flights. The second-generation Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS II) would scan government and private-sector databases for criminal, financial and other information and ferret out high-risk passengers using a color-coded" risk score." Senator Ron Wyden, instrumental in exposing the privacy threat posed by John Poindexter's Total Information Awareness (TIA) project, led a backlash in Congress that challenged the TSA's authority to create such a system. Meanwhile, thanks to a series of suits by the ACLU and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), documents emerged showing that dozens of innocent passengers--including American Muslims, South Asians and senior citizens--were being harassed, detained and even strip-searched by National Guard, airport security and local law-enforcement officials because of a secret no-fly list, the existence of which the TSA had previously denied. TSA administrator James Loy repeatedly promised that CAPPS II would not move forward until all privacy concerns were addressed, and the Department of Homeland Security hired a chief privacy officer to make sure all programs measured up to existing privacy laws. But in mid-September, the furor reignited when a lone privacy advocate uncovered a disturbing document regarding New York-based JetBlue Airways, which has been in talks with the TSA to participate in testing the CAPPS II program.