Since 2002, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been using a data-mining program that creates secret, terrorist ratings on tens of millions of travelers—both US and foreign citizens—who cross US borders.
DHS now proposes that these secret terrorism risk profiles be kept for 40 years and that all "Privacy Act" safeguards be removed from them. That means those of us on the database—and that includes anyone who has crossed a US border via an airline—will have no right to review the information in our terrorism profile or to request that information be updated or removed if it contains inaccuracies.
The result of a "false positive" terrorist profile is more than mere inconvenience—the Automated Targeting System is the source for the "No Fly" list that is notorious for the inaccurate data it contains. This list STILL contains the names of most of the dead hijackers from the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, along with thousands of other names of individuals who have no connection whatsoever to terrorism.
And, as I’ve pointed out before, because of the very small number of real terrorists that exist, a data mining system like the Automated Targeting System, even if it’s 99.9% accurate, will pinpoint hundreds or even thousands of innocent individuals for every real terrorist it identifies.
There’s still a chance that DHS can be forced to include Privacy Act protections in the Automated Targeting System. But it won’t happen without a massive outpouring of public opposition to its outrageous proposal.
DHS has extended the deadline for public comments on this system until Friday, Dec. 29. I urge you to contact DHS by this date and let them know what you think of this privacy-invading, rights-stripping system.
To learn more about the Automated Targeting System, see http://www.epic.org/privacy/surveillance/spotlight/1006/default.html. To submit a comment to HSA on the system, go to http://ws.privacyalertnetwork.net/points/point?id=444.
