Related Issues: Privacy

Travel Screening

Before you get on an airplane, the government wants to sift through the personal details of your life. If the data analysis says you're a security risk, too bad -- you may have no way of challenging the error. Worse still, that black mark could follow you for the rest of your life, and there may be little stopping the government from using your data for purposes far outside of travel screening.

EFF has been fighting these privacy-invasive schemes every step of the way. Time and again, the government has been caught deceiving the public about data mining and travel screening. Yet despite repeated rebukes, government officials have persisted in developing new screening systems that treat millions of innocent travelers like suspected terrorists.

Automated Targeting System (ATS)

In November 2006, the Department of Homeland Security revealed that for years it has assigned "risk assessments" to millions as they enter or leave the country. Once the assessment is made, there is no way to challenge it and the government will retain the information for 40 years -- as well as make it available to federal, state, local, and foreign agencies in addition to contractors, grantees, consultants, and others. Before major media reports picked up the story, EFF sounded the alarm and submitted formal comments opposing ATS.

CAPPS II and Secure Flight

CAPPS II was a planned profiling system that would have required airlines to provide personal details about passengers before they boarded their flights. These details would then be combined with government and commercial databases to create a color-coded "score" indicating each person's security risk level. In 2004, American Airlines admitted to providing 1.2 million passenger records to contractors developing prototypes for the program, even though the Transportation Security Administration had denied such a transfer for months.

Learn more about CAPPS II

Yet just as soon as CAPPS II seemed dead, a new program called Secure Flight was taking shape. TSA claimed that this program would simply match passenger information provided by airlines with existing watch lists. After the TSA was caught lying to the public about the program's testing, its launch has been indefinitely postponed.

Travel Screening Cases

FOIA Litigation: Personal Information Gathered on International Travelers
EFF has filed suit on behalf of a member of the European Parliament, demanding that the U.S. government release records about her "risk assessment" score and other information gathered about her during her international travels. The lawsuit came just days after the disclosure that the U.S. and the European Union may soon finalize an agreement authorizing the transatlantic exchange of large amounts of personal data.
FOIA Litigation: Border Searches
Asian Law Caucus v. Department of Homeland Security, Civil Action No. 08-842 (N.D. Cal. filed Feb. 7, 2008). EFF and the Asian Law Caucus have sued the Department of Homeland Security for denying access to records about the questioning and searches of travelers at U.S. borders.
FOIA Litigation: DHS Passenger Data
US v. Arnold
On April 21st, the Ninth Circuit held in United States v. Arnold that the Fourth Amendment does not require government agents to have reasonable suspicion before searching laptops or other digital devices at the border, including international airports. Customs and Border Patrol are likely to use the opinion to argue that almost every property search at the border is constitutionally acceptable.