CAPPS II Guidelines Released

W33dz writes "WIRED magazine has released an article detailing the Transportation Safety Administration's latest guidelines for the second-generation Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, or CAPPS II. As outlined in a notice to be published Friday in the Federal Register, CAPPS II will rate every passenger by checking dates of birth, home addresses and phone numbers against commercial databases and the government's terrorist watch lists. This is a pullback from the original plan which called for wide dissemination of data including financial and medical history."

Comments

US security regarding travel is getting absurd

[Kethinov]

Recently I went on a little Greyhound bus trip across half the US. During reboarding procedures at one of my stops, there was a complete inspection of all the carry on luggage. Being over 24 hours sleep deprived and these security procedures making me later than I already was, I was more than uncooperative. As a response to my inquiry, this goes on randomly across bus stations across the US, according to the inspector. After (what seemed like) a lengthy inspection of my, and all other passenger's carry on luggage, we boarded the bus and off we went.

What's the point? This disturbs me. I can see why people might be getting a bit paranoid with air planes and all, but buses?! What the hell can I do with a hijacked bus in the middle of Missouri? Ram the bus into the giant arch in St. Louis? The US is becoming way too paranoid about terrorists these days.

This is just the beginning.

[Anonymous Coward]

As outlined in a notice to be published Friday in the Federal Register, CAPPS II will rate every passenger by checking dates of birth, home addresses and phone numbers against commercial databases and the government's terrorist watch lists. This is a pullback from the original plan which called for wide dissemination of data including financial and medical history."

Yup and after a couple of years they'll slip in the 'financial and medical history' and you'll never no the difference.

I call it privacy rights 'creep'.

Airport "security" is just reasurance.

[ezraekman]

All of these added precautions are not intended to make travel more secure. They are intended to make travel feel more secure.

I have a friend who is a project manager for a major X-ray scanner vendor. He handles installations many major airports worldwide, including SFO and Oakland in the SF bay area. In a moment of ire at all of the red tape he's had to deal with, he informed me that 30% of all bags checked in at the counter are never checked. They are not scanned, X-rayed or visually inspected. You check them, and they are tagged, accepted, and loaded. That's it.

I wanted to verify this for myself. I fly quite a bit these days, so I've engaged a number of airport screeners and TSA reps in conversation. I just ask them how their day is going, and mention offhand how unfortunate that they have to be under so much stress, when such a large number of baggage goes unchecked, and when it's really just a feel-good measure for the American public. If the screener I'm speaking with is in a good mood (or is just happy to not be dealing with another disgruntled passenger), the answer is almost always "Yeah, I know. It's stupid, but that's the job." Most of the white-shirted TSA folks seem to know better than to affirm that, but I've even tripped up a couple of them recently.

All of this extra screening does not stop serious, hard-core terrorists from taking control of our planes. It does not stop assassins from planting explosives. With the verification techniques displayed by all of the security personnel during my last four or five flights, it is clear to me that a quickly forged identity card left in one's wallet and a mocked-up e-mail itinerary will suffice to get you past the gate. So-called "random" searches and screenings are usually generated by certain flags: infrequent flyers, one-way tickets, and the like. I was recently flagged for a "random" screening, based on the fact that I had booked a one-way ticket. But since I had flown three other flights with this company, I was excepted.

Surgical steel will not set off the metal detectors, even the super-sensitive ones used in the wands. $20,000 could easily pay for a quick surgery and enough plastic explosive to take out a plane. Triple that amount if the surgeons do a good job. That's chump change to a dictator with a grudge. The electronics need only be made of surgical steel, and the chemicals need only need be buried in flesh to avoid a secondary alert. The trigger could be something as innocuous as a two-way pager or a cell phone. Weapons can easily be hidden inside the cases of laptops, if properly shaped and disguised. I know all of this because, with the exception of explosives and weapons, I have carried all of the rest on board myself.

If someone was determined enough, planned ahead, and had a decent bankroll, they would not be stopped by all of this "security". Only a complete moron of a terrorist would get tripped up by it. These new measures are not intended to stop terrorists. By forcing the American public to submit to all of these checks, they convince us that "if we're being inconvenienced this much, no terrorist could possibly get through now". And do you know what? The government is right. The American public does not want to know. I've started conversations with several friends and relatives about this very subject. The moment any question of real security enters the conversation, I'm told "I don't want to know; I just want to feel safe". That's a direct quote.

People truly are sheep. Sheep that want to be led. Sheep who not only don't realize what's really happening to their rights, but that wouldn't really care if they did.

Where will the data come from and when?

[phr1]

I've never been asked for my home address or DOB when buying a plane ticket. If the purchase is on someone else's credit card (e.g. it's for work), my address isn't connected with the ticket at all. On boarding, they look at my ID but they don't currently write down any of the data. Are they going to start doing that, and need online realtime access to some terror database? That will make the existing boarding hassles so much worse.

Any idea when this crap is supposed to start?

Two letters...

[jhoffoss]

After the initial announcement of this plan, I wrote two letters, one to my Senator, Norm Coleman and the other to my Representative, Martin Sabo. I received a letter back from Sabo (ranking member of Homeland Security subcommittee) stating he had introduced an amendment requiring two reviews, one by the General Accounting Office before more funding can be appropriated, the other review directed the National Academy of Sciences to study the CAPPS II proposal to recommend modifications to minimize or eliminate adverse effects on civil liberties and privacy. Because of these, the bill was required to be considered by the full house, not just a committee.

Coleman's letter reported the bill has been reduced in the information utilized (as outline in the story) and information on any passenger is supposed to be purged from the system shortly after his travel is over. This should ideally minimize the amount of data at risk should the system be compromized.

I was glad to see Sabo actually concerned. Coleman's letter was worthless, basically saying "I agree, privacy=good, data collection=bad, but I'm not doing anything about it."