Privacy in the skies: CAPPS II: the sequel.

• Author: Doherty, Brian
• Position: Citings

A YEARLONG CHORUS OF anguish from privacy activists killed the proposed Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, better known as CAPPS II. That program would have allowed the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to search a plethora of government and private databases to assess the threat posed by each traveler.

In August the TSA announced a replacement program called Secure Flight, which will begin preliminary testing this fall. Some differences between Secure Flight and CAPPS II are meant to assuage privacy concerns. It will check passengers only against terrorist watch lists, not against all lists of criminals. It will not require airlines to demand an address, date of birth, or phone number for every passenger reservation. It will, however, still consult commercial databases to verify passenger identities.

While many privacy activists are at least tentatively pleased with this program, there are worries that Secure Flight could be made more intrusive after it's implemented. The Washington Post reports that "people close to the project" believe that the program's parameters "will likely expand after the presidential election."

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