[Infowarrior] - US Citizens' U.S. Border Crossings Tracked

[Richard Forno]

Citizens' U.S. Border Crossings Tracked
Data From Checkpoints To Be Kept for 15 Years

By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 20, 2008; A01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/19/AR2008081902811_pf.html


The federal government has been using its system of border checkpoints  
to greatly expand a database on travelers entering the country by  
collecting information on all U.S. citizens crossing by land,  
compiling data that will be stored for 15 years and may be used in  
criminal and intelligence investigations.

Officials say the Border Crossing Information system, disclosed last  
month by the Department of Homeland Security in a Federal Register  
notice, is part of a broader effort to guard against terrorist  
threats. It also reflects the growing number of government systems  
containing personal information on Americans that can be shared for a  
broad range of law enforcement and intelligence purposes, some of  
which are exempt from some Privacy Act protections.

While international air passenger data has long been captured this  
way, Customs and Border Protection agents only this year began to log  
the arrivals of all U.S. citizens across land borders, through which  
about three-quarters of border entries occur.

The volume of people entering the country by land prevented compiling  
such a database until recently. But the advent of machine-readable  
identification documents, which the government mandates eventually for  
everyone crossing the border, has made gathering the information more  
feasible. By June, all travelers crossing land borders will need to  
present a machine-readable document, such as a passport or a driver's  
license with a radio frequency identification chip.

In January, border agents began manually entering into the database  
the personal information of travelers who did not have such documents.

The disclosure of the database is among a series of notices, officials  
say, to make DHS's data gathering more transparent. Critics say the  
moves exemplify efforts by the Bush administration in its final months  
to cement an unprecedented expansion of data gathering for national  
security and intelligence purposes.

The data could be used beyond determining whether a person may enter  
the United States. For instance, information may be shared with  
foreign agencies when relevant to their hiring or contracting decisions.

Public comments are being taken until Monday, when the "new system of  
records will be effective," the notice states.

"People expect to be checked when they enter the country and for the  
government to determine if they're admissible or not," said Greg  
Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy & Technology.  
"What they don't expect is for the government to keep a record for 15  
years of their comings into the country."

But DHS spokesman Russ Knocke said the retention period is justified.

"History has shown, whether you are talking about criminal or  
terrorist activity, that plotting, planning or even relationships  
among conspirators can go on for years," he said. "Basic travel  
records can, quite literally, help frontline officers to connect the  
dots."

The government states in its notice that the system was authorized by  
post-Sept. 11 laws, including the Enhanced Border Security and Visa  
Reform Act of 2002, the Aviation and Transportation Security Act of  
2001, and the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004.

Nojeim said that though the statutes authorize the government to issue  
travel documents and check immigration status, he does not believe  
they explicitly authorize creation of the database.

"This database is, in a sense, worse than a watch list," he said. "At  
least in the watch-list scenario, there's some reason why the name got  
on the list. Here, the only thing a person does to come to the  
attention of DHS is to lawfully cross the border. The theory of this  
data collection is: Track everyone -- just in case."

Under the system, officials record name, birth date, gender, date and  
time of crossing, and a photo, where available, for U.S. travelers  
returning to the country by land, sea or air. The same information is  
gathered about foreign travelers, but it is held for 75 years.

DHS and other agencies are amassing more and more data that they  
subject to sophisticated analysis. A customs document issued last  
month stated that the agency does not perform data mining on border  
crossings to glean relationships and patterns that could signify a  
terrorist or law enforcement threat. But the Federal Register notice  
states that information may be shared with federal, state and local  
governments to test "new technology and systems designed to enhance  
border security or identify other violations of law." And the Homeland  
Security Act establishing the department calls for the development of  
data-mining tools to further the department's objectives.

That raises concerns, privacy advocates say, that analyses can be  
undertaken that could implicate innocent people if appropriate  
safeguards are not used.

The border information system will link to a new database, the Non- 
Federal Entity Data System, which is being set up to hold personal  
information about all drivers in a state's database. States that do  
not agree to allow customs to have such large amounts of information  
may allow the agency to query their databases in real time for  
information on a traveler.

Because of privacy concerns, Washington state earlier this year opted  
for the queries-only approach. The Canadian government made the same  
decision. "There was absolutely no way they should have the entire  
database," said Ann Cavoukian, Ontario's privacy commissioner, who  
learned about the Canadian government's decision in April.

"Once you have data in a database you don't need, it lends itself to  
unauthorized use," she said. "You have no idea of the data creep."

Vermont opted to allow access to its driver's licenses because the  
state could not guarantee the "nanoseconds" response time DHS  
required, said Bonnie L. Rutledge, the state's commissioner of motor  
vehicles. She said drivers are informed up front of the data sharing.

"A person opts to go over the border, their information is going to be  
collected and held anyway," she said. "If you don't want to go over  
the border, you don't have to."

The notice states that the government may share border records with  
federal, state, local, tribal or foreign government agencies in cases  
where customs believes the information would assist enforcement of  
civil or criminal laws or regulations, or if the information is  
relevant to a hiring decision.

They may be shared with a court or attorney in civil litigation, which  
could include divorce cases; with federal contractors or consultants  
"to accomplish an agency function related to this system of records";  
with federal and foreign intelligence or counterterrorism agencies if  
there is a threat to national or international security or to assist  
in anti-terrorism efforts; or with the news media and the public "when  
there exists a legitimate public interest in the disclosure of the  
information."

Homeland Security is proposing to exempt the database from some  
provisions of the 1974 Privacy Act, including the right of a citizen  
to know whether a law enforcement or intelligence agency has requested  
his or her records and the right to sue for access and correction in  
those disclosures.

A traveler may, however, request access to records based on documents  
he or she presented at the border.

The notice is posted at the Government Printing Office's Web site.