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Federal aviation databank
invades passengers’ privacy

THE ISSUE The agency in charge of aviation security is storing detailed information about air travelers.

PERSONAL information about air travelers is being stored at the federal agency in charge of aviation security, contrary to what Congress directed and in apparent violation of a privacy law. Congressional hearings are needed to rein in the Transportation Security Administration to confine the agency to its proper functions.

Privacy concerns about aviation security measures have been expressed since the terrorist attack of nearly four years ago brought increased scrutiny of airline passengers. The Bush administration announced a year ago that it was backing away from plans to use commercial databases in its computerized system to identify potential terrorists trying to board planes.

However, in a statement to be published today in the Federal Register, TSA, part of the Department of Homeland Security, acknowledges having bought and continuing to store details about every passenger who flew domestically on commercial flights in June 2004 as part of test of a screening program called Secure Flight. The data includes names, addresses, phone numbers and credit card information.

The agency obtained the information from airlines and turned it over to a contractor, Viginia-based EagleForce Associates. The company then put most of the information on CD-ROMs "and provided those CD-ROMs to TSA for use in watch-list match testing," according to documents obtained by the Associated Press.

The agency now stores that data, although it had said it would not keep commercial information about passengers and Congress directed it to refrain from doing so. It also appears to be violating the Privacy Act of 1974, which prohibits the government from keeping secret databases.

At one point, the agency said it planned to gather information about passengers only a few hours before departure and retain it for only a few days after the trip is completed. The documents obtained by the wire service indicate that the data will be stored at the agency indefinitely. EagleForce's role was to compare the information supplied by airlines with commercial data from three contractors to determine whether it was accurate.

Disclosure of the existence of the TSA database follows the theft of 200,000 credit card accounts from Visa, Mastercard and other card issuers from a credit-card processing company. The company's chief executive said it should not have been retaining records that exposed 40 million cardholders to a risk of fraud.

"Identity theft is rampant," said Timothy Sparapani, a legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, "and the failure of TSA's commercial data testing to prove the program's worth, which caused TSA to reach out for an extensive amount of data, demonstrates that Secure Flight cannot live up to its billing as a means to catch terrorists."

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