"TSA Modifies Screening Plan" 
Washington Post (06/14/03) P. E1; O'Harrow Jr., Robert 

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), partly in response 
to hundreds of written complaints from people and organizations, has 
revised plans for a second-generation Computer Assisted Passenger 
Prescreening System (CAPPS II) in order to reduce its intrusiveness, 
according to documents and government officials.  

An earlier CAPPS II draft called for analysis of passenger records 
through federal computer systems and artificial intelligence, and 
indicated that officials wanted the authority to broadly use such 
records. 

The revised version would require each passenger to reveal their 
name, address, birthday, home phone number, and passenger name record. 
Chosen details about each passenger would be given to commercial 
data services that would deliver a risk score determining whether 
each passenger is who he or she claims to be and has roots in the 
community; the draft privacy notice says that the commercial services 
would not be permitted to hold onto the scores in a "commercially 
usable form."  

The amended CAPPS II draft will likely include the appointment of 
a "passenger advocate" to handle complaints about various problems, 
while passengers would be screened by a "black box" system 
containing records about suspected terrorists. Center for Democracy 
and Technology staff counsel Lara Flint notes that this announcement 
is a positive development, but is still awaiting solid evidence that 
TSA is following its promises.  

The draft privacy notice declares that "TSA recognizes that inaccuracies 
in the commercial data may exist and that the CAPPS II system must 
allow for and compensate for such inaccuracies." Some privacy experts 
are still unsure even with the new rules, because a great deal about 
CAPPS II remains covert.  

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57122-2003Jun13.html

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Copyright 2003, Information Inc., Bethesda, MD.  

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Cheers, Steve..

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