Privacy: U.S. Airport Screeners Are Watching What You Read

[Richard Forno]

U.S. Airport Screeners Are Watching What You Read
By Ryan Singel Email 09.20.07 | 2:00 AM
http://www.wired.com/print/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/09/ 
flight_trackin
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International travelers concerned about being labeled a terrorist or  
drug
runner by secret Homeland Security algorithms may want to be careful  
what
books they read on the plane. Newly revealed records show the  
government is
storing such information for years.

Privacy advocates obtained database records showing that the government
routinely records the race of people pulled aside for extra screening as
they enter the country, along with cursory answers given to U.S. border
inspectors about their purpose in traveling. In one case, the records  
note
Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Gilmore's choice of  
reading
material, and worry over the number of small flashlights he'd packed  
for the
trip.

The breadth of the information obtained by the Gilmore-funded Identity
Project (using a Privacy Act request) shows the government's screening
program at the border is actually a "surveillance dragnet," according  
to the
group's spokesman Bill Scannell.

"There is so much sensitive information in the documents that it is  
clear
that Homeland Security is not playing straight with the American  
people,"
Scannell said.

The documents show a tiny slice of the massive airline-record collection
stored by the government, as well as the screening records mined for the
controversial Department of Homeland Security passenger-rating system  
that
assigns terrorist scores to travelers entering and leaving the country,
including U.S. citizens.

The so-called Automated Targeting System scrutinizes every airline  
passenger
entering or leaving the country using classified rules that tell agents
which passengers to give extra screening to and which to deny entry  
or exit
from the country.

The system relies on data ranging from the government's 700,000-name
terrorism watch list to data included in airline-travel database  
entries,
known as Passenger Name Records, which airlines are required to  
submit to
the government.

According to government descriptions, ATS mines data from  
intelligence, law
enforcement and regulatory databases, looking for linkages in order to
identify "high-risk" targets who may not already be on terrorist  
watchlists.

ATS was started in the late 1990s, but was little known until the  
government
issued a notice about the system last fall. The government has  
subsequently
modified the proposed rules for the system, shortening the length of  
time
data is collected and allowing individuals to request some  
information used
by the scoring system.

The government stores the PNRs for years and typically includes
destinations, phone and e-mail contact information, meal requests,  
special
health requests, payment information and frequent-flier numbers.

The Identity Project filed Privacy Act requests for five individuals  
to see
the data stored on them by the government.

The requests revealed that the PNRs also included information on one
requester's race, the phone numbers of overseas family members given  
to the
airlines as emergency contact information, and a record of a purely  
European
flight that had been booked overseas separately from an international
itinerary, according to snippets of the documents shown to Wired News.

The request also revealed the screening system includes inspection notes
from earlier border inspections.

One report about Gilmore notes: "PAX (passenger) has many small  
flashlights
with pot leaves on them. He had a book entitled 'Drugs and Your  
Rights.'"
Gilmore is an advocate for marijuana legalization.

Another inspection entry noted that Gilmore had "attended computer
conference in Berlin and then traveled around Europe and Asia to visit
friends. 100% baggage exam negative. Resides 554 Clay Street , San
Francisco, CA. PAX is self employed 'Entrepreneur' in computer software
business."

"They are noting people's race and they are writing down what people  
read,"
Scannell said.

It doesn't matter that Gilmore was reading a book about drugs, rather  
than
Catcher in the Rye, according to Scannell. "A book is a book," Scannell
said. "This is just plain wrong."

The documents, which will be posted to an Identity Project website, have
also turned Scannell against the Department of Homeland Security's  
proposal
for screening airline passengers inside the United States.

That project, known as Secure Flight, will take watchlist screening  
out of
the hands of airlines, by having the airlines send PNR data to the
government ahead of each flight. While earlier versions included  
plans to
rate passenger's threat level using data purchased from private  
companies,
DHS now proposes only to compare data in the PNR against names on the
watchlist, which largely disarmed civil libertarians' opposition to the
program.

That's changed for Scannell now, who sees Secure Flight as just another
version of ATS.

"They want people to get permission to travel," Scannell said. "They  
already
instituted it for leaving and entering the country and now they want  
to do
it to visit your Aunt Patty in Cleveland."

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for
comment.




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