TOPICS
TOPICS
DHS issues range of traveler screening rules
The Homeland Security Department on Thursday announced several regulations related to screening airline and ship passengers, including one for the controversial Secure Flight program.
Amid a slew of Federal Register notices during the congressional recess, Homeland Security published a final rule to let the Transportation Security Administration take over the screening of airline passengers against government watch lists.
"Under the program, TSA would receive passenger and certain non-traveler information from aircraft operators, conduct watch-list matching, and transmit watch-list matching results back to aircraft operators," the department said.
The department also moved to create a system of records for Secure Flight and exempt it from parts of the Privacy Act.
Separate notices announced a series of changes to other traveler-screening programs. The department published a system of records for the advanced passenger-information system and a final rule concerning when airplane and ship operators must transmit electronic information on passengers to the government.
COMMENTS
- "I guess wee're not in Kansas anymore, Toto", said Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. Well, too bad for those posters who are perpetually worried about the evil police state, the UN, and alien abductions. Virtaully all Americans have some form of record, starting from birth. Privacy is not guarrantied by the Constitution when traveling, so why do people think it is? Post 9/11 we cannot afford the dumb, naive assumption that everyone is OK, and just want to get along with us. This view is uniquely American. Do some international traveling and you will find far more scrutiny in other countries. To paraphrase Ben Franklin: Those who would disregard safety for the illusion of privacy deserve neither safety nor privacy. Wake Up America! Christmas Tree Posted August 29, 2007 9:49 AM
- Why do I feel like we're turning into a police state? It sounds like Homeland Security will be collecting information on everyone traveling, whether U.S. citizens or not. And they'll be collecting information on everyone traveling in the U.S. or coming in from foreign countries. They've recently developed new rules to report this information to intelligence agencies on foreigners traveling from foreign countries and around the U.S. It doesn't seem like much of a leap that they could soon be transferring that information on U.S. citizens' travel to all intelligence agencies. They're in the process of exempting the information collected from the Privacy Act. Are there any court remedies to this or will they exempt themselves from that too? Alfred Molison Posted August 24, 2007 12:33 PM
- now let's see how long it takes them to contract it out, probably to someone in India or China. Rita K Posted August 24, 2007 10:07 AM
