[FYI] (Fwd) FC: More on Feds will testing massive system to profile

["Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Thu, 07 Feb 2002 11:37:04 -0500
To:             	politech@politechbot.com
From:           	Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject:        	FC: More on Feds will testing massive system to profile air
 	travelers
Send reply to:  	declan@well.com

See also, from 1999:

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,19218,00.html
WASHINGTON -- A US$2.8-billion monitoring system championed by Vice
President Gore will use computer profiles to single out airline
passengers for investigation and scrutiny. Airlines will use a secret
algorithm to compare travelers' personal data to profiles of likely
terrorists, according to a new proposed federal regulation. Other
travelers will be chosen at random. [...]

---

Date: Wed, 06 Feb 2002 21:15:48 -0800
From: Edward Hasbrouck <edward@hasbrouck.org>
Subject: Re: FC: Feds will begin testing massive system to profile air
travelers In-reply-to:
<Pine.GSO.4.21.0202010513550.27162-100000@well.com> To: Declan
McCullagh <declan@well.com> Reply-to: edward@hasbrouck.org Message-id:
<3C619D04.21832.3AD25F@localhost> Organization: The Practical Nomad
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On 1 Feb 2002 at 5:21, "Declan McCullagh" <Declan McCullagh
<declan@well.com>> wrote:

To:             	politech@politechbot.com
Subject:        	FC: Feds will begin testing massive system to profile
air travelers

 > http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5185-2002Jan31.html
 > >    By Robert O'Harrow Jr. >    Washington Post Staff Writer >   
 Friday, February 1, 2002; Page A01 > >    Federal aviation
 authorities and technology companies will soon begin >    testing a
 vast air security screening system designed to instantly pull >   
 together every passenger's travel history and living arrangements,
 plus >    a wealth of other personal and demographic information. > >
    The government's plan is to establish a computer network linking
 every >    reservation system in the United States to private and
 government >    databases.

That's not a "plan", and not new -- it's what CAPS ("Computer Assisted
Passenger Screening") does now.  All USA airlines have been required
to pass passenger reservation data through the CAPS system since 1998.

 >   The network would use data-mining and predictive software to >   
 profile passenger activity and intuit obscure clues about potential >
    threats, even before the scheduled day of flight.

The real news seems to be that the monitoring would go on in advance
of flights.  That could be real-time, or it could be a batch process
performed periodically; the latter would be a fairly simple extension
of the current CAPS process, and would need no new linkages.

 >    Although such a system would rely on existing software and
 technology, >    it could be years before it is fully in place, given
 that enormous >    amounts of data would need to be integrated and a
 structure would need >    to be established for monitoring passenger
 profiles.

It might take time to integrate additional government databases into
the CAPS system, and some additional integration would be required for
*continuous* monitoring in advance of flights.  (The current CAPS
system passes reservation data from the airline to the government only
once, at check-in).  But the "structure for monitoring passenger
profiles" -- the integration of CRS's and airline host databases with
USA government networks so that reservation data can be passed through
CAPS -- is already in place for *all* airlines in the USA, and has
been since 1998.

I think the problem is that the basic idea of CAPS -- that every time
you have checked in for an airline flight in the USA since 1998, all
the information in your reservation record has been provided by the
airline to the USA government, for use including, but not limited to,
profiling, and possibly for retention by the government -- is so
far-feteched seeming that many people assume, mistakenly, that talk of
such a system must be a new proposal, rather than a proposal for
relatively minor tweaks in the system that was in place, and failed,
on September 11th.

Peace,

Edward Hasbrouck

----------------
Edward Hasbrouck
<edward@hasbrouck.org>
<http://hasbrouck.org>

"The Practical Nomad Guide to the Online Travel Marketplace"
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1566912504/edwardhasbro>
"The Practical Nomad: How to Travel Around the World"
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1566912148/edwardhasbro>




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