[Infowarrior] - Giant US air travel data suck fails own privacy tests

[Richard Forno]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/29/dhs_pnr_privacy_report/

Giant US air travel data suck fails own privacy tests

By John Lettice •
Posted in Government, 29th December 2008 11:22 GMT

A US Department of Homeland Security privacy report published earlier  
this month reveals that the DHS remains in violation of both US law  
and the DHS-EU agreement on the handling of Passenger Name Record  
(PNR) data. The report itself claims that the DHS is in compliance on  
both counts, but according to the Identity Project, it "contains  
multiple admissions that support exactly the opposite conclusion."

For several years now the DHS has forced airlines carrying passengers  
to the US to collect and hand over PNR data for screening purposes  
prior to flights. Data collected within the EU is subject to EU data  
protection legislation, and its handover is permitted - subject to  
"safeguards" - under the DHS-EU agreement of 2007. The operation of  
this is subject to joint reviews of compliance, although none has so  
far been conducted, while the US end of the deal (covering PNR data in  
general) is subject to US review, where the US Privacy Act applies.

The outcome of this, paradoxically, is that the supposedly tougher EU  
privacy regime is in this case more relaxed than the US one. The DHS- 
EU agreement allows the DHS to retain EU passenger data for a period,  
while the Identity Project doubts that there is any legal basis for US  
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to retain the Automated Targeting  
System Passenger (ATS-P) database which contains the PNR data at all.

The Project notes that the DHS report concedes that subject requests  
for PNR data have typically taken more than a year to answer, far more  
than required by the Privacy Act and Freedom of Information Act, that  
responses have been inconsistent or inadequate, and inconsistently  
censored. Data sourced from the EU, the US and elsewhere is also mixed  
in the system with no clear way to establish its origins and,  
therefore, the data protection regime(s) that should apply.

According to the DHS, ATS-P aids CBP officers "in frustrating the  
ability of terrorists to gain entry into the United States, enforcing  
all import and export laws, and facilitating legitimate trade and  
travel across our borders." According to the EU's Fundamental Rights  
Agency, which was asked in September for an opinion on the transfer of  
PNR data for law enforcement purposes, "data transfers to third  
countries are only possible if an adequate level of protection of PNR  
data is ensured and monitored in the recipient country."

As of next month, the US is scheduled to escalate its data-sucking  
activities further, with the introduction of ESTA, Electronic System  
for Travel Authorization. This obliges would-be travellers to supply  
data direct to the DHS in order to obtain a 'clear to fly'  
authorisation prior to take-off, although airlines still appear to be  
collecting extensive PNR data from them anyway. ®