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DHS's 'Secure Flight' Program Proven Insecure

Posted by Zonk on from the i-trust-the-government-as-far-as-i-can-throw-it dept.

News.com is reporting the somewhat unsurprising news that a government program we were assured was 'perfectly safe', has actually been proven to be a privacy nightmare. The 'Secure Flight' program matched air traveler information with commercial databases in the interests of national security. The charter for the program specifically forbade the TSA from accessing this information; the organization got their hands on it anyway. The Department of Homeland Security has released a report, detailing these findings and analyzing the situation. The News.com piece makes it clear the report was released on Friday in an attempt to obscure it from public notice; it was only linked to from a DHS subsite, and has not shown up on the DHS or TSA main pages. From the article: "The report from the Homeland Security privacy office takes pains to say that the privacy compromises over Secure Flight were 'not intentional,' and includes a list of seven recommendations to avoid similar mishaps in the future. Those include explaining to the public exactly what's going on and creating a 'data flow map' to ensure information is handled in compliance with the 1974 Privacy Act. This isn't the first report to take issue with Secure Flight. Last year, auditors at the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported that the program violated the Privacy Act."

3 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. stupid americans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    ahahahaha

    you fools voted for the neocons and look what you have - a police state

    you reap what you sow

    1. Re:stupid americans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      indeed, your government and country are bigger but your brains and penis' are smaller.

  2. Re:you were making great points by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    The great thing about posting anonymously is I can vent without fear of personal attack. Parent is an absolute idiot, and those agreeing with him/her or suggesting the poster be "modded up" are equally idiots. Clinton was a lying, cheating, manipulating butt and his only evidence of intelligence was his creativity and gile when faced with his lies. If Bush wasn't sharing the predominant ideas of the majority of people in the USA, he would not have won both elections with the majority of popular vote. The tremendous surge in the 18-25 year voters in the last election simply reflects the "me too" mentality of the younger generation who has no experience yet to make value judgements affecting society. For the same reason we send 18 year olds to war (they're ignorant of the world, have no sense of proportion or balance, they think they're invinciable) is exactly why they should not be voting... Sadly, anyone with the good sense, balance, and sense of human mortality would not go to war. So long as there are people, there will always be war... history shows us that in our own humankind... we see it on all levels of recognized creation.