Homeland Security tracks travelers' meals, assigns terror scores
Without notifying the public, federal agents have assigned millions of international travelers, including Americans, computer-generated scores rating the risk they pose of being terrorists or criminals.
The travelers are not allowed to see or directly challenge these risk assessments. The government intends to keep the scores on file for 40 years. Talk about a permanent record...
The scores are assigned to people entering and leaving the United States after computers assess their travel records, including where they are from, how they paid for tickets, their motor vehicle records, past one-way travel, seating preference and what kind of meal they ordered.
Some highlights:
The government calls the system critical to national security following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Some privacy advocates call it one of the most intrusive and risky schemes yet mounted in the name of anti-terrorism efforts.
Virtually every person entering and leaving the United States by air, sea or land is scored by the Homeland Security Department's Automated Targeting System, or ATS.
The use of the program on travelers was quietly disclosed earlier this month when the department put a notice detailing ATS in the Federal Register, a fine-print compendium of federal rules. The few civil liberties lawyers who had heard of ATS and even some law enforcement officers said they had thought it was only used to screen cargo.
The Homeland Security Department said the nation's ability to spot criminals and other security threats "would be critically impaired without access to this data."
David Sobel, a lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group devoted to civil liberties in cyberspace said: "It's probably the most invasive system the government has yet deployed in terms of the number of people affected."
Government officials could not say whether ATS has apprehended any terrorists.
The government notice says some or all of the ATS data about an individual may be shared with state, local and foreign governments for use in hiring decisions and in granting licenses, security clearances, contracts or other benefits. In some cases, the data may be shared with courts, Congress and even private contractors.
Everybody else can see it, but you can't. What are we, Gitmo prisoners?
Much more info here . Read on and be afraid...
4 comments:
About 4-6 weeks ago, a couple got arrested for some first-class hanky panky under the blankets if I remember. ;)
I guess that leaves out anyone that wants to fly United, doesn't it? I bet that airline stock is going to take a nosedive.
I'm probably on that list, too. I paid by cash and check for our tickets to Mexico, although I did so through a travel agent. And coming back, I developed a hideous case of "turista". By the time we got to Houston, I was very sick. Continental put us on stand-by for an earlier flight. But because we asked for an earlier flight, we were targeted for a more intensive check at customs. So, here I am, having had to run for bathrooms in two countries and mid-air, and this idiot has decided to check my shoes. She tells me to sit in a chair. I did so, but I told her, "Here's the deal. I have a massive case of Montezuma's revenge, which is why we asked for the earlier flight. If it hits me while we're going through this process, I'm coming up out of this chair, and sprinting for the nearest bathroom. You're welcome to sprint along with me. Hell, you can even come in the stall with me if you have the stomach for it. But I am not going to sit here in this chair and shit in my jeans in Houston Intercontinental. It's kind of like the bomb squad shirt that says 'If you see me running, try to keep up.'" The pathetic part is that Cookie and I both have FBI clearances (for different reasons) and Miss ATS probably didn't even have one. I didn't bother to tell her or throw my badge on her. Fortunately, I made it through the customs check without having to flee for the bathroom. But, I'll bet I'm written up somewhere as a trouble maker. Which is true.
Apparently some Congress people are taking notice of this because they've said that it's one of the things that can happen with the lack of oversight. Another investigation is planned, but who knows if that'll have any effect on what they do with the information and how it is abused.
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