The documents were released under the Freedom of Information Act to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, one of the groups that had raised concerns about plans to use commercial databases and data-mining technology to scan the records of all travelers, whether they were suspects or not. The center provided copies to the New York Times.

The program, abandoned in July, kept growing in scope. Compare the drafts:

The first draft of the privacy assessment stated the purpose of the program in one concise paragraph, saying that CAPPS II information "may be disclosed to federal, state, local and international law enforcement officials who have jurisdiction over the airframe and/or the individual who is a known or suspected foreign territorial or who is a threat to aviation safety, civil aviation or national security."

By the third draft, in July 2003, there were 15 paragraphs, saying the system could be used in other cases of violent crime by "appropriate federal, state, local, international or foreign agencies or authorities." The third version of the privacy statement also included contractors, consultants, "other federal agencies conducting litigation, as well as the General Services Administration and the National Archives." The expansion of the program's mission has been reflected in public statements by Homeland Security officials, as well.

EPIC director Marc Rotenberg calls the plan "the best documentation of a post-9/11 mission creep that I think we've seen."

"Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the privacy group, said successive drafts of documents about the screening system showed "how the government was planning to expand the use of CAPPS data for a wide variety of purposes unrelated to passenger profiling, at the same time restricting the individuals' access to that information."