by TChris

The tension between privacy and security continues to grow as the government seeks to implement the Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS II). The system would rank air passengers according to the likelihood that they are terrorists.

Congress last year ordered the General Accounting Office, its investigative arm, to report on whether CAPPS II safeguards passenger privacy. The auditors reported last month that the government hasn't adequately addressed security and privacy concerns.

The Transportation Security Administration intends to order airlines to surrender passenger records so that it can test CAPPS II. The airlines have refused to provide the information voluntarily. The airlines are worried about "government snooping and the possibility that people will be wrongly labeled as terrorists." The Air Transport Association, speaking for the airlines, would like the TSA to adopt guidelines that would protect the privacy of passengers.

The guidelines seek to ensure the TSA collects only personal information pertaining to aviation security, stores it securely and gets rid of it as soon as travel is completed. The airlines also said that passengers must be allowed to access their personal information and correct any errors.

The TSA has hired a privacy officer to assure that it obeys existing privacy laws, and says that it won't retain passengers' records, "except for people who might be terrorists."

CAPPS II would compare passenger information to government databases and assign each passenger a color code. Red means the passenger is a terrorist or violent criminal: no flying allowed. Yellow means questions exist and the passenger would go through extra security screening. Everybody else would be green, meaning they go through routine screening.

In response to the GAO report, some members of Congress believe CAPPS II is so flawed that it will ultimately be cancelled. The TSA is pressing onward, and will order the airlines to submit the requested passenger information within the next couple of months.