Secure Flight Will Not Use Commercial Databases
Posted by Brian Bennett
The Transportation Security Administration (“TSA”) has scrapped plans to use commercial data to check the identities of airline passengers in “Secure Flight,” the government’s proposed passenger prescreening system. As envisioned by the TSA, Secure Flight would be used by the government to compare passenger name records against information compiled by the Terrorist Screening Center, including “no fly” lists. The TSA would also use Secure Flight to detect suspicious travel behavior. The TSA intended to use information collected in commercial databases, such as data related to drivers and credit history, to verify the accuracy of information provided by travelers. Shortly after the TSA made the decision not to use commercial data, a working group of experts appointed by the TSA issued a confidential report on September 19, 2005, that criticized the privacy impacts of the Secure Flight program.
Bruce Schneir, who was one of the members of the working group that released the report, further discusses these issues on his blog.