U.S. transportation agency tests program that uses credit reports to screen air passengers
OK; how long before the Department of Homeland Insecurity begins to require blood and urine tests at airport gates? How about a DNA swab? Have we really reached the point where our nationals terror paranoia will accommodate this sort of invasions of personal privacy? Apparently so.
Currently, only Delta Air Lines is participating in testing the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System II (CAPPS II) program at three undisclosed airports, but officials expect it to be rolled out to all passengers at Northwest Airlines and other carriers within the next 10 to 16 months.
CAPPS II is drawing fire from civil liberties groups and privacy advocates, who say it will collect an unprecedented amount of data on individuals and give no assurance of accuracy. They also say the plan lacks sufficient controls over who would have access to the information.
"The federal government now has the authority to seize information from wherever they can grab it, whether or not it's accurate, to create a dossier on you," said Charles Samuelson, executive director of the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union. "The TSA claims these records are going to be restricted, but according to these regulations, they're not. They're so open-ended that damn near anybody has access to these records."
The data collected would include bank records, credit reports and some law enforcement data, according to transportation officials. They say CAPPS II would use databases that operate in line with privacy laws and won't profile passengers based on race, religion or ethnicity. "What it does have is very fast access to existing databases so we can quickly validate the person's identity," Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper.
The system rates passengers' risk potential under a color code. The vast majority of passengers will be rated green and subjected to only the usual checks; those rated yellow will undergo more thorough screening, and those rated red won't be allowed to fly. According to regulations published in the Jan. 15 Federal Register, a government publication, the system went into effect Feb. 24.
CAPPS II has been notable for the lack of public outcry that has been raised against it. It would seem that our national paranoia has turned us into a nation of sheep, willing to surrender any right to personal privacy in the name of safety and security.
If I decide to fly somewhere, there is no reason that I should be subjected to a credit or background check for the "privilege" of purchasing a ticket. There is nothing to indicate, nor has anyone theorized, that this sort of system would have stopped the terrorists responsible for 9.11. What's worse is that there seem to be no safeguards against the unlawful or unwarranted use of the information that is gathered. How long will the information be kept? Who will have access to it? What safeguards will be in place to prevent the dissemination of erroneous information? Anyone who has looked at their credit report is aware of how error-riddled such information can be.
Once the government has been granted the right to gather such personal information, what is to stop them from taking the next step and use such information to justify the exclusion of honest Americans from other activities? Where are the controls that will guarantee that potential (or current) employers don't have access? What about health insurers? Creditors? Marketers? Criminals? It's a slippery slope, and one that may well lead to many unintended consequences. What checks and balances will be in place to prevent such unintended consequences?
[Charles] Samuelson of the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union said he fears regulations will fall hardest on less-affluent people -- those with no credit history or who have misused credit. "Those people are targeted as potential terrorists," he said. "Where is it written that people with bad credit history are any more likely to be terrorists? . . . This isn't going to do what [the TSA] intends it to do. They haven't demonstrated any reason for this, other than the fact that they can."
Terry Trippler, an air travel expert in the Minneapolis office of CheapSeats.com, said he has been a strong backer of other measures to tighten airport security, but he said this program "is over the line."
"I have supported [President Bush] on everything he has done, but I do not support this in any way, shape or form," he said. "Once we allow stuff like this to come into play, what's next? We all have to carry papers, like in Eastern Europe? We have to take a deep breath on this one."
Have we reached the point where the Bill of Rights is considered a charming but horribly outdated concept in our post-9.11 world? Has 9.11 caused us to rethink the value of personal liberty? Has security at any cost become the driving force in our society? If we're going to tolerate the gradual, creeping assault on our privacy and civil liberties, what other conclusions are there to draw? Of course, if we tolerate a growing and increasingly invasive government presence in our lives, we deserve whatever we get.
