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Lockheed tracks financial records passengers Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2003/10/03-capps.htmhttp://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2003/10/03-capps.htm
10/02/2003 - Updated 10:42 PM ET
Air-traveler screening, privacy concerns collide
By Fred Bayles USA TODAY
The government may launch a trial run this month of a new computerized system that uses financial records of air travelers to identify passengers who might pose security risks.
But many in the airline industry remain reluctant to help the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) move forward with the project. They continue to balk at sharing passenger information with the government — a necessary step before the system can be put into place.
Government officials say the updated Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, dubbed CAPPS II, is designed to provide quick background checks of the 1.8 million people who fly each day. But critics of the system, already two years in development, say the system could threaten the privacy of passengers.
TSA officials remain optimistic that airlines eventually will provide information about fliers. But until the agency and the airlines agree about precisely how that information will be used, TSA cannot move forward with an $80 million program that officials consider a cornerstone of aviation security.
To date, the TSA has been testing CAPPS II with fictitious passenger lists. Now it wants to use actual passenger records from airline archives. "We need to get on with real testing of real data," TSA head James Loy says.
Under CAPPS II, airlines would provide the TSA with a "passenger name record" for each passenger boarding a flight. The record would include the passenger's address, phone number and birth date.
That information would be run through law enforcement databases to check for wanted criminals and suspected terrorists. Commercial databases also would be checked to see whether the passenger has a credit rating, an employment history, a residence. The passenger's travel history also would be examined.
The TSA says names will be compared against commercial databases only to determine the likelihood that passengers are who they say they are — not to determine, for example, whether a passenger likes to buy guns or is a bad credit risk.
Passengers would then be rated using a color code. "Green" passengers would not be considered a risk and would be able to move through security quickly. "Yellow" passengers would receive additional screening at checkpoints. "Red" passengers would be stopped as soon as they were identified. Only wanted felons or known or suspected terrorists would be likely to be flagged as "red" passengers, TSA says.
Expressing worries
As of Wednesday, about 8,000 people had submitted written comments on the proposed system with the TSA. Agency spokesman Brian Turmail says almost all mentioned concerns about passenger privacy. That issue was highlighted by last week's disclosure that JetBlue Airways gave millions of passenger records to a private contractor working on a military security project. That contractor wanted to see how much it could find out about those passengers based on the information the airline had kept.
As part of that project, JetBlue's records were used to get passengers' Social Security numbers. That admission has renewed concerns about how CAPPS II would use information about passengers.
JetBlue faces two lawsuits over its handling of the records. Earlier this year, plans by Delta Air Lines to share passenger data with the TSA were canceled after consumers threatened a boycott. The Air Transport Association, which represents 95% of the nation's airlines, has complained about TSA's plans to use a private contractor, Lockheed Martin, to develop CAPPS II.
"JetBlue gave some member airlines pause about the confidentiality of passenger information," says an association spokesman, Doug Wills. "Our view is we support a pre-screening program run and managed by the federal government rather than the contractor."
Old system still in use
CAPPS II would replace the 6-year-old CAPPS program. Airlines continue to use the old system to check passenger names against a list of suspected terrorists. CAPPS assigns points to passengers whose actions are consistent with how authorities believe terrorists might behave. For instance, passengers who buy one-way tickets or pay for tickets at the last minute with cash score higher and therefore are subjected to more scrutiny.
But TSA officials acknowledge that seasoned travelers know the criteria for CAPPS screening and can recognize a sequence of numbers on their airline tickets that indicates whether they have been picked for additional scrutiny. That means terrorists can likely skirt the old system.
Precisely what criteria the new system would use to identify passengers who might pose security risks remain classified.
Such secrecy is what alarms privacy advocates. They fear the information from the variety of databases could be used to spy on passengers, from tracking travel companions to monitoring where travelers may be staying.
Loy, the TSA administrator, says that won't happen. CAPPS II is designed to automatically go into commercial databases, check the information and then assess each passenger's potential risk. No one will see the records the system has reviewed.
"There will be a firewall between the security side and the commercial side," Loy says.
Will it even work?
Privacy concerns aside, questions remain about whether the new system will work any better than the old one, which failed to prevent the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Arnold Barnett, a statistician at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is among those who argue that any screening system that relies on an established set of criteria can be defeated.
"You don't even have to figure out what formula is being used," he says. "All you'd have to do to test the system is send people out on scouting expeditions. Those who don't get searched at the airport don't fit the profile, meaning that they're the ones who should carry out a mission."
TSA spokesman Turmail says CAPPS II will offer a degree of unpredictability as it shifts the way it measures passengers each day.
"The criteria will change with the latest intelligence information, the different threat levels, what individuals are considered threats," he says. "We're committed to developing a dynamic system."
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