February 12, 2004
Development of the US government's controversial airline passenger-screening system has stalled in the face of privacy concerns, according to a congressional report released on Thursday.
The system would check passengers' utility bills, mortgage payments and other private records to weed out potential hijackers, but developers at the Department of Homeland Security have not set up safeguards to prevent identity theft and other misuse, investigators at the General Accounting Office found.
"We believe that these issues, if not resolved, pose major risks to the successful development, implementation and operation" of the system, the report said.
Homeland Security Department officials said on Thursday they did not know when the system would be ready, and one senior official involved with the project said its future is in doubt.
"This report, plus all of the continued drumbeat of criticism, has left the continued development of the program up in the air," said the official, who asked not to be named.
Lawmakers and civil-liberties groups said the report underscored reservations they already had about the program. "The CAPPS II program raises many concerns... We learned today that these concerns are well-founded," said West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd, adding that the report amounted to a "failing grade."
The Computer Assisted Passenger Profiling System II, announced a year ago, would comb government intelligence and consumer data to verify passengers' identities and determine if they have criminal records or links to groups such as al Qaeda.
Government officials say CAPPS II would ensnare fewer innocent passengers than its current screening system, which monitors traveler itineraries and behavior.
The program has drawn widespread public criticism, and airlines that co-operated with research efforts have faced a backlash from passengers.
Delta Air Lines pulled out of a pilot program last spring after a threatened boycott, while JetBlue Airways and Northwest Airlines have been hit with class-action suits following revelations that they secretly gave passenger data to government researchers.
Last year Congress said the government could not implement the system until it had privacy protections in place.
The report found that development of the program has been stymied by airlines' reluctance to share passenger data for testing purposes. Though the agency has set up an oversight board, it has not completed other benchmarks set by Congress, GAO said.
Researchers still must test the accuracy of the information used to assess passengers, as well as methods of searching that information, the report said.
The agency has not established safeguards to prevent abuse and guard against unauthorized access, GAO said, and still needs to set up a dispute-resolution process.
Co-operation from foreign countries, assurances that the program will not expand beyond its original mission, and protections against identity theft are still needed as well, investigators said.
Lawmakers said they were frustrated that development was taking so long.
"We're [nearly] three years into the process and there is nothing except a bad report," said Rep. John Mica, chairman of the House aviation subcommittee.
Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary for borders and transportation security, said he did not "look at the GAO report as really shedding any unusual light on the present circumstances other than the fact that we have not been able to test the system yet."
He said testing should begin before the end of the year but would not say when the program would be implemented.
The American Civil Liberties Union and other privacy-rights groups said the report echoed their concerns.
(Reuters)
