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DHS Passenger Scoring Almost Certainly Illegal
Vicissidude writes "At the National Targeting Center, the Automated Targeting System program harvests up to 50 fields of passenger data from international flights, including names, e-mail addresses and phone numbers, and uses watchlists, criminal databases and other government systems to assign risk scores to every passenger. When passengers deplane, Customs and Border Protection personnel then target the high scorers for extra screening. Data and the scores can be kept for 40 years, shared widely, and be used in hiring decisions. Travelers may neither see nor contest their scores. The ATS program appears to fly in the face of legal requirements Congress has placed in the Homeland Security appropriations bills for the last three years." From the article: "Marc Rotenberg, the director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said he was unaware of the language but that it clearly applies to the Automated Targeting System, not just Secure Flight, the delayed successor to CAPPS II. 'Bingo, that's it -- the program is unlawful,' Rotenberg said. 'I think 514(e) stands apart logically (from the other provisions) and 514 says the restrictions apply to any 'other follow-on or successor passenger prescreening program'. It would be very hard to argue that ATS as applied to travelers is not of the kind contemplated (by the lawmakers).'"
if you use a fake boarding pass :-)
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The one bright spot to all of this is that starting next year, you'll be able to log into www.FreeTerrorReport.com and get a free copy of your score from all three of the main terror bureaus.
We're going down, in a spiral to the ground
One of my pet peeves is the word "deplane". It is NOT deplane, it is DISEMBARK!!!
Jesus, when did the airlines have such a low opinion of their passengers that they think that they don't know what disembark means?
Seriously, deplane? Sound more like delouse. AAAAAHHHHH, get these planes off me!!!
"Long live Jong-Il and down with the freedom fighters in the White House!"
If crime-fighters fight crime, and fire-fighters fight fire, what do freedom-fighters fight?
Living With a Nerd
Wait, so let me get this straight...
The Department of Homeland Security actually wrote something that would PRESERVE our Constitutional rights?!?!
Who are you and what have you done with our fascist overlords?
"It's not whether you win or lose, it's how drunk you get." -- H. J. Simpson
All of them - just check the database.
All of them - just check the database. And don't tell me you can't!
All of them - just check the database. And don't whine about it being exempt from Freedom of Information Act requests. After all, we're protecting our country... or at least all except for the statistically insignificant number who are Muslims... oops, sorry, I meant "potential terrorists."
<IRONY=0%>
Oh, dammit, I forgot the <IRONY=100%> tag again!
Strike while the irony is hot! -- The Freethinker
Not knowing what DHS is (I'm not an oppressed American), the headline read like:
a) DHS is an airline (or similar),
b) one of their passengers got lucky, but
c) they got busted.
Osama's won. Our society's changed for the worst and the current Administration has helped keep us in fear of ourselves. All Al Queda has to do now is threaten to hack the server of the kid selling lemonade on the corner and the TSA puts us on Orange alert and we all have to be on the look out for strange people doing strange things while holding 3.1oz. of fluid in hard to see-through bags. God help us if a TSA agent drives through North Hollywood, CA on his way to work one night. He'd lose his mind and we'd go to Red alert and DEFCON 1.