Wow! Well I guess I'll receive a high rating on this 'travelor safety score'. NOt because I'm dangerous mind you, but just because I'm a progressive blogger and a vegan and a peacenik, and have been sighted at *gasp* a JOHN KERRY RALLY.
But if you are travelling this holiday, you might wonder what the government is giving you for your score. AND if you havea bad score, they may just do something 'fishy' with your food.
via CNN
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.
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.
Well of course they don't notify the public. They deny it for at least 3 years before they admit they have in fact been doing this.
Of course, if you're not a peacenik, an Arab, a vegan, or a blogger, you have nothing to worry about.
But read more:
"It's probably the most invasive system the government has yet deployed in terms of the number of people affected," said David Sobel, a lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group devoted to electronic data issues.
He continued, "Some individuals will be denied the right to travel and many the right to travel free of unwarranted interference as a result of the maintenance of such material."
A similar Homeland Security data-mining project, for domestic air travelers -- now known as Secure Flight -- caused a furor two years ago in Congress. Lawmakers barred its implementation until it can pass 10 tests for accuracy and privacy protection.
The government notice says ATS data 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.
If a traveler is singled out erroneously by ATS data it could cost innocent people jobs in shipping or travel, government contracts, licenses or other benefits, Sobel warned.
But Ahern said the ATS ratings simply allow agents at the border to pick out people not previously identified by law enforcement as potential terrorists or criminals.
DHS agents can then conduct additional searches and interviews.
"It does not replace the judgments of officers," Ahern said Thursday.
travelers cannot learn whether the system has assessed them. Nor can they see the records "for the purpose of contesting the content."
Toby Levin, senior adviser in Homeland Security's Privacy Office, noted that the department pledged to review the exemptions over the next 90 days based on the public comment received.
As of Thursday, all 15 public comments received opposed the system outright or criticized its redress procedures.
The Homeland Security privacy impact statement added that "an individual might not be aware of the reason additional scrutiny is taking place, nor should he or she" because that might compromise the ATS' methods.
Nevertheless, Ahern said any traveler who objected to additional searches or interviews could ask to speak to a supervisor to complain.
Homeland Security's privacy impact statement said that if asked, border agents would give complaining passengers a one-page document that describes some, but not all, of the records that agents check and refers complaints to Custom and Border Protection's Customer Satisfaction Unit.
Homeland Security's statement said travelers can use this office to obtain corrections to the underlying data sources on which the risk assessment is based.
If something is inaccurate, the privacy statement assures, "The assessment ... will change when the data from the source system(s) is amended."
"I don't buy that at all," said Jim Malmberg, executive director of American Consumer Credit Education Support Services, a private credit education group.
Malmberg noted how hard it has been for citizens, including members of Congress, to stop being misidentified as terrorists because their names match those on anti-terrorism watch lists.
In 2004, it took Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts three weeks to have his name removed from the government's secret "no-fly" list.
I wonder what joker used T. Kennedy on a 'no-fly' list. But this is the list that Jesselyn Radack is still on.
All she did is make and ethical decision and protest when the official paperwork was tossed and she protested.
Shouldnt there be some way to redress this if your name is wrongly on the list? preferably a more reliable way than the way that Guantanamo prisoners are determined to be "enemy combatants"...
Well, have no fears.
We all will be found guilty before innocent and it won't be considered racial profiling when we're all Democrats and we're all on the no-fly list.
