Airlines Told to Turn Over Passenger Data

[CHIMO]

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Transportation Security Administration announced on Tuesday that it will order domestic airlines to turn over personal information about passengers to test a system that will compare their names to those on terrorist watch lists.

The system, called Secure Flight, replaces a previous plan that would have checked passenger names against commercial databases and assigned a risk level to each. That plan, which cost $103 million, was abandoned because of privacy concerns and technological issues.

The amount of data in passenger name records varies by airline, but it typically includes name, flight origin, flight destination, flight time, duration of flight and form of payment. It can also include credit card numbers, address, telephone number and meal requests, which can indicate a person's ethnicity.

The TSA will also conduct a limited test in which they'll compare passenger names with information from commercial databases to see if they can be used to detect fraud or identity theft.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4505164,00.html?gusrc=ticker-103704

[Catfight]

1. I wasn't using my civil rights anyway. I bet I'm on it. n/t

[knitter4democracy]

2. Oh, Jeez, they never stop! nt

[LiberalFighter]

3. Easy enough way to comply....

Use the names of gw*, ridge, ashcroft, powell and others.

I'm sure they can obtain the necessary confidential info on those characters.

[amazona]

7. don't understand this comment

This is the names of people who flew in the month of June. If you're a non-criminal, non-terrorist who doesn't fly on a fake ID, and you flew in the month of June, your name is ALREADY in the system, and it is just a matter of the airline(s) in question turning it over to the feds. June was an active flying month for me, personally, so about all I can do is hope they don't waste too much time trying to figure out who was staying in my hotel room and what brand bourbon I prefer. It is too late to show up at the airport with a fake ID to protect your privacy while flying, not that I would advocate anyone do this in the first place. Somehow I don't think you'd get very far with a ticket/ID bought in the name of GW*. Yeah, it's a common name and all, but come on. Or do I totally misunderstand your observation -- I'm thinking there is something here I'm not getting.

It does irritate me that any FA could scribble "drunk" on my record and I wouldn't even know about it. They shouldn't push drinks on people (as they do in first class) if they're going to make secret crib notes about it.

Oh well. We live in a goldfish bowl where every aspect of one's life can be twisted to make one look bad, I suppose. :-(

[UpInArms]

4. related article: U.S. orders full month of airline records

http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?file=540014.html

WASHINGTON The Transportation Security Administration has said that it will require each airline in the United States to turn over records on every passenger it carried domestically in the month of June, so that it can test a system to match passenger names against lists of known or suspected terrorists.

The data that will be ordered varies from airline to airline. It includes the passenger's name, address, telephone number and flight number. It may also include the names of others traveling in the same party, meal preference, whether the reservation was changed, method of payment and comments of all types by airline employees, such as whether a passenger was drunk or belligerent.

The department placed several documents related to the proposal in the Federal Register on Wednesday, for public comment, a first for the agency. The transportation security agency is promising to listen to airlines, privacy advocates and others who opposed an earlier system.

"We're giving them a chance to comment on the order, which we almost never do," said Justin Oberman, director of the transportation security agency's Office of National Risk Assessment. "We want to do this collaboratively."

<snip>

By demanding the entire airline record, the agency will receive not only the travelers' names, phone numbers and addresses, but also information like "whether you ordered the low-salt, kosher meal and who is sleeping in your hotel room," said Barry Steinhart, of the American Civil Liberties Union. It was just that broad sweep that led the European Parliament to ask the European Union's highest court to annul a treaty between the EU and the United States for sharing information about trans-Atlantic airline passengers. The European Commission, the EU's executive body, and EU governments signed an agreement with the United States in May on sharing such information, despite privacy objections from Parliament. The agreement compels European airlines to turn over 34 pieces of information about each passenger.

...more...

[mmonk]

5. Well there goes my family's privacy

[amazona]

8. yeah mine too

But have a great vacation! :-(

[tom_paine]

6. Naturally, we have to read about this from the Free World

Imperial Amerikan press wouldn't touch it, and if it was printed on page A27 somewhere you can GUARANTEE it won't find it's way to the TV.

[AnnInLa]

9. Well, I've already been labeled a terrorist by Sec of ED

when he called all teachers terrorists. Now, I find out that because I did fly twice in June, they will go thru my CREDIT CARD records. What's on my credit card? Only 3 major contributions to MoveOn.orgPac, 2 donations to Kerry campaign, many smaller contributions to local Dems all over the country, bought a lot of stuff from Kerry Gear, bought AAR stuff, bought books from Amazon: Dude, Where's My Country? Bush's Brain, Kitty Kelley's Family, Clinton's autobiography, 4 copies of Farenheit 9/11, and Bob Granham's A Matter of Intelligence. Also on that credit card and on my passport: many, many trips to Mexico. Shit, am I in trouble, or what? Good thing I didn't pay for an abortion by credit card.

[Kellanved]

10. They are already doing it with European Airlines

Despite the European Union not liking it one bit. Also the data-collecting is set for expansion on transatlantic packages and letters...

[BeHereNow]

11. Figure out where you want to end up

because the day is coming when
"you can't get to there from here..."

This is not about keeping people out.
Our borders and ports are wide open.

This is about keeping people IN.
Financially and otherwise.
BHN