Friday, 26 February 2010
USA raising fees for both inbound and outbound travellers
Under a series of new laws and regulatory proposals, almost everyone travelling internationally to or from the USA -- US passport holders, visa-free foreign visitors, and foreigners with visas -- would have to pay more in government fees for the required credentials and/or permissions. Today the U.S. Senate passed the... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 12 February 2010
What to expect if you are going to the Olympics in Vancouver
A Canadian coalition led by the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group has released a timely Report of the Information Clearinghouse on Border Controls and Infringements to Travellers’ Rights on the human rights issues faced by travellers to and from Canada, based on two years of research and reports submitted to... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 8 January 2010
Lessons from the case of the man who set his underpants on fire
If you're looking for my analysis of recent events, I've posted it in the Identity Project blog: We’ve been having a hard time keeping up with events over the last few weeks. Every time we think the keystone cops from the Department of Homeland Security can’t come up with anything... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 13 December 2009
TSA Screening Management Procedures
There's been a lot of news in the last week about the USA Transportation Security Administration's posting of the TSA "Screening Management Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)" on a public Federal government Web site. The Identity Project has previously obtained portions of this document in response to our requests under the... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 26 November 2009
"Keeping Track of Travelers' Personal Information"
WSAV-TV in Savannah, Georgia, used my forms and instructions to request the U.S. government's records about one of their reporters' travels from the "Automated Targeting Ssystem". Two months later, after getting an (incomplete) response, they've broadcast a detailed Thanksgiving travel-season report on what they found and its significance: "Keeping Track... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 8 November 2009
Chase joins "Hall of Shame" for credit card terms and conditions
I've previously recommended the credit card issued by Chase in conjunction with the Amtrak Guest Rewards frequent-rider program as one of the best frequent-traveller credit cards, depending on whether you travel regularly on Amtrak, and if so on which routes. It has high fees for foreign transactions, cash advances, or... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 6 November 2009
Consumer groups call for action on travel privacy
The Consumer Travel Alliance, the Consumer Federation of America, and the Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights have joined me in comments filed today with the Federal Trade Commission asking the FTC to "include the category of travel data in your agenda for action to protect the privacy of... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 30 October 2009
Consumer privacy, travel records, and the FTC
The USA Federal Trade Commission -- one of the Federal agencies that seems to have really taken a new direction under new management with the Obama Administration -- is organizing "a series of day-long public roundtable discussions to explore the privacy challenges posed by the vast array of 21st century... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 16 August 2009
More FAQ's about "Secure Flight"
If you're confused by recent news reports about "Secure Flight", such as why an airline or travel agencies wants you to tell them your data of birth or gender (what are transgendered people supposed to answer?), how they will use this data, or whether they can penalize you or prevent... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 15 July 2009
Mentions here and there
This blog has been selected as one of the Best Travel Guide blogs for 2009 by Tripbase in their inaugural travel blog awards: WomenEntrepreneur.com singles me out as follows: Get the Inside Scoop on Travel: Here are 5 bloggers who offer eye-opening advice and information about life on the road... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 2 July 2009
"Clear" shuts down its registered-traveller system
Verified Identity Pass, Inc. ("VIP") shut down its Clear traveller registration and airport fast-lane scheme last week. Under the Clear scheme, and two much smaller competing ones run by other companies, air travellers could get access to dedicated lanes leading up to TSA checkpoints in airports, in exchange for payment... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 4 June 2009
"Enhancing" the drivers license
I'm on a panel this afternoon at CFP to discuss the "enhanced" drivers' licenses (EDL's) being issued in some U.S. states and Canadian provinces: Border-line ID: "Enhancing" the drivers license - for security or surveillance? This session will examine technical and political contradictions in the development of "enhanced" drivers licenses... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 3 June 2009
Congress to vote on virtual strip searches at airports
I'm spending this week in Washington, DC, at one of my favorite annual events, the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference. There's live streaming video of the conference plenaries, although I don;t think it includes the breakout sessions such as the one Thursday where I'll be talking about the Western Hemisphere... (...Read Entire Entry)Monday, 1 June 2009
"Today we're all prisoners in the USA"
I've posted an important alert today in the Identity Project blog about a change in U.S. government rules that could trap you inside (or outside) the borders of the USA, unable to leave the country or to return -- even if you're a U.S. citizen.... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 10 May 2009
What does Air France do with reservation data?
Air France and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines present quite different "corporate cultures", despite being owned by the same French parent corporation , the Air France-KLM Group . Unfortunately, my latest experiments have shown that these two airlines have in common a disregard for the privacy and data protection laws applicable... (...Read Entire Entry)Saturday, 2 May 2009
"Secure Flight" data formats added to the AIRIMP
How soon will we have to get government permission to move around the USA? My analysis today in the Identity Project blog: Secure Flight data formats added to the AIRIMP... (...Read Entire Entry)Monday, 20 April 2009
New developments in government control of travelers in the USA
Over at the Identity Project blog, I have a pair of reports today on the latest developments in government control of air travellers in the USA: TSA claims new powers of detention, search, and interrogation Secret Secure Flight 'vetting' algorithm now in use by 4 US airlines... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 19 March 2009
AmEx continues to spam me ... after closing my account
As I've previously reported, American Express closed my account because I objected to the new terms they proposed that would have required me, in order to keep my AmEx card after 2 April 2009, to "consent" (on behalf of myself and anyone else whose phone I might ever use to... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 18 March 2009
Air France puts digital fingerprints in RFID boarding passes
I've often said that there's an unfortunate convergence of interests between travel companies' desires for business process automation and collection of marketing data, and governments' desires for surveillance and movement tracking and logging. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Air France's deployment this week, in operational beta testing, of... (...Read Entire Entry)"All Things Considered" on RFID chips in passports
Today’s edition of “All Things Considered” includes a puff piece on e-passports with embedded RFID chips, based entirely on government propaganda. They quoted not a single critic of RFID chips in passports or other travel and identity documents, even though members of the public who submitted comments on the proposal... (...Read Entire Entry)Saturday, 7 March 2009
Say it ain't so, Chuck Schwab
Following my own advice after American Express cancelled my card, I applied to Charles Schwab Bank for a new credit card to use when travelling abroad. (I used to have a different Charles Schwab Bank credit card, but it had a 3% surcharge for foreign currency transactions, and the bank... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 5 March 2009
"Notes from the Electronic Cottage"
Welcome to listeners to today's segment of Jim Campbell's "Notes from the Electronic Cottage" on community radio WERU-FM in Blue Hill and Bangor, Maine. It's archived online and worth a listen. (And it put me back in touch with a long-lost relative who now lives near Blue Hill, heard the... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 1 March 2009
AmEx cancelled my card. Now what should I do?
A week ago today I reported on the announcement by American Express of new terms effective 2 April 2009 for personal AmEx cards issued in the USA, under which, in order to obtain or retain an AmEx card, you will have to "agree" that AmEx has your "consent" to send... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 22 February 2009
Urgent warning to American Express cardholders
If you have an American Express card, you need to take action now: Unless you cancel your card and close your account, or unless AmEx is persuaded to withdraw changes it has announced (effective 2 April 2009) to the terms of its agreement with cardholders, you will be deemed to... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 3 February 2009
Drive-by reader for RFID drivers licenses and passport cards
Hacker and researcher Chris Paget has posted a viedo demonstrating what I and others have been warning people about for years: the ability to read the globally unique serial numbers on RFID chips in passport cards and electronic drivers licenses in the purses and pockets of pedestians on the street,... (...Read Entire Entry)Saturday, 10 January 2009
How to request your travel records
By popular demand, I'm posting updated forms to request your PNR's and other records of your international travel that are being kept by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Privacy Act request form in OpenOffice format Privacy Act request form in... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 8 January 2009
Quick trip to Brussels
I'll be in Brussels and Paris from January 14th through 20th to participate in the annual conference on Computers, Privacy and Data Protection This year's theme is "Data Protection in a Profiled World", and I'll be talking about some of the issues with surveillance and control of travelers, and the... (...Read Entire Entry)"World Travel In Troubled Economic Times"
I'll be speaking at Get Lost Travel Books in San Francisco on Thursday evening, January 22nd, on "World Travel In Troubled Economic Times": Jump-start your next international journey with this talk by Edward Hasbrouck author of "The Practical Nomad". Back in San Francisco after a 13 month, 6 continent, 80,000... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 7 January 2009
"The Amazing Race" resumes February 15th
I don't pick the schedule (or the contestants, despite hundreds of comments in my blog from people wanting to be in the cast), but The Amazing Race reality-TV show about travel around the world will be back for its next series much sooner than usual: the first episode of The... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 30 December 2008
Crossposting at PapersPlease.org
I'm continuing to work with the Identity Project as a technical expert, policy analyst, and consultant on travel-related civil liberties and human rights issues. I've often posted pointers here to the Identity Project blog and Web site at www.PapersPlease.org , and will probably continue to do so occasionally. But I'd... (...Read Entire Entry)Can you really see what records are kept about your travel?
One of the big differences between American and European attitudes is that people in the USA tend to be much less willing to trust that the government is doing its job in accordance with the law. Many Europeans have told me this, and it's also what I've observed in the... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 17 December 2008
TSA to require bar-coded boarding passes
Buried in the notice of the final rules for the Secure Flight airline passenger ID, surveillance, and control scheme is notice that the USA Transportation Security Administrations (TSA) intends to require airlines to add machine-readable codes to all boarding passes for flights in the USA: To ensure the integrity of... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 13 November 2008
"Secure Flight" and the Right to Travel
I've been getting too many questions to answer individually about the regulations issued last week for the so-called Secure Flight program to require ID and permision for air travel in the USA: What does it mean? How will it work (and will it work)? When will it go into effect?... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 23 October 2008
Radio hour today on "Secure Flight"
I'll be on the Katherine Albrecht Show today from 2-3 p.m. Pacific time (5-6 p.m. Eastern Time, 2200-2300 GMT/UTC), talking about the final rules issued yesterday by the USA Transportation Security Administration for the Secure Flight scheme for control and surveillance of passengers on domestic airline flights in the USA.... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 22 October 2008
Secure Flight, "Watch-List Service Providers", and more
Today the TSA and DHS released their final rule for the so-called Secure Flight program to require each would-be airline passenger, even on domestic fligths within the USA, to get individualized per-person, per-flight prior permission from the TSA before they would be "allowed" to board a plane. The final Secure... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 8 August 2008
Foreigners now need USA permission to leave their home countries
Since I got home, I've spent much of my time (aside from unpacking and moving back into our house from storage) analyzing the Electronic Sysem for Travel Authroization (ESTA) and preparing formal comments on the ESTA filed this week by the Identity Project. You can read the summary or our... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 8 July 2008
Another round of illegal USA travel controls
Recently, while I've been travelling, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) of the USA Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a press release announcing new, illegal, identity verification procedures for travellers at airports in the USA, while the DHS Customs and Border Protection (CBP) division has published a formal proposal... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 3 February 2008
Will you really need a "Real-ID" to fly?
There's been a lot of confusion in the last few weeks as to (1) whether the USA Federal "Real-ID Act" will change the requirements for personal identification documents for airline passengers in the USA, and (2) if and when the Real-ID Act is fully implemented, will it be impossible to... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 25 January 2008
New travel document requirements for USA citizens
Under new regulations and procedures announced to take effect over the next month, citizens of the USA will, for the first time, be required to obtain USA government permission in order to return home to their own country from abroad -- from anywhere else in the world, by air or... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 20 December 2007
Back in Brussels
Six months into my current year-long trip around the world, I'm spending this week in Brussels (Belgium). Some of the high points of our trip so far include English House in Buenos Aires (Argentina), Potosi (Bolivia), driving across the Atacama Desert and down the desert coast of northern Chile, Brazilian... (...Read Entire Entry)Monday, 29 October 2007
Deadline for public comment on "Secure Flight" extended to 21 November
Just a quick note that by popular demand, the USA Transportation Security Administration has extended the deadline for public comments on the so-called Secure Flight scheme for surveillance and control of domestic and international travellers until 21 November 2007. You don't have to be a citizen or resident of the... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 21 September 2007
Results of requests for my "targeting" records
Following the disclosure in late 2006 of the USA government's illegal Automated Targeting System (ATS), which has been secretly keeping dossiers on tens of millions of innocent international travelers to and from the USA, I and several other activists requested our ATS files under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 13 September 2007
Public hearing in Washington on "Secure Flight"
An obscure notice buried in the Federal Register on 5 September 2007 announced a public meeting in Washington, DC, on Thursday, 20 September 2007, to hear comments on the Department of Homeland Security's "Secure Flight" scheme for additional control and monitoring of domestic air travel within the USA. The current... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 21 August 2007
German press on airline reservation privacy
I'm quoted at some length in this article in "heise" online (with audio) on the lack of privacy protection for PNR's (airline reservation data), especially when they are stored or processed in the USA. The article notes the problems that result when European airlines "share" data with agents, contractors, and... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 12 August 2007
ICAO schedules next workshop on RFID passports and biometrics
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has scheduled its third annual symposium on biometrics and RFID chips in passports for 1-3 October 2007 at ICAO headquarters in Montréal, Québec, Canada. ICAO has also posted the latest report of its technical advisory group (TAG) on machine readable travel documents (MRTD's), including... (...Read Entire Entry)Another USA-EU "agreement" on airline reservations
Wendy Grossman has a good story today in The Register on the latest "agreement" between the USA and the European Union on transfers of Passenger Name Record (PNR) data from the EU to the government of the USA. I haven't posted much about the latest PNR "agreement", largely because I... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 9 August 2007
Revised USA government schemes for traveller surveillance and control
Today the USA Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the latest converging and ever-worse versions of its plans for surveillance and control of both domestic air travellers within the USA ("Secure Flight", formerly CAPPS-II) and international air and sea travellers to, from, or via the USA (the intenational "Advanced Passenger... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 8 August 2007
KLM claims it doesn't know what happens with passengers' data
In March of this year, I flew on KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (one of the subsidiaries of the merged Air France KLM Group) from San Francisco to a hearing in Brussels before the European Parliament and a meeting of privacy and data protection supervisors of European Union (EU) member countries.... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 7 August 2007
"Automated Targeting System" redux
In November 2006, the USA Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revealed the existence of a so-called Automated Targeting System (ATS) of lifetime government dossiers on millions of international travellers to and from the USA, including airline reservations obtained (by unspecified means) from international airlines, as well as a wide range... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 24 June 2007
USA government refuses to learn from passport problems
From the day they went into effect in January of this year, the new USA government rules requiring passports for all travel by air between the USA and Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean (even for citizens of the USA returning home from abroad) have been a disaster. I told them... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 18 May 2007
Does the Chicago Convention authorize government demands for PNR's? No.
In his testimony before the European Parliament on Monday, USA Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff claimed that the authority for governments to demand access to passenger name records (PNR's) is expressly provide by the Chicago Convention (the 1944 fundamental international civil aviation treaty). I was susprised by Chertofff's statement,... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 17 May 2007
Chertoff pledges to prosecute crimes against the Privacy Act
Thanks to the heroic efforts of EFF's Erik Josefsson and others in Brussels to obtain and upload gigabytes of video, I've been able to watch the entirety of USA Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff's testimony before the LIBE Committee of the European Parliament on Monday. Chertoff's actual testimony was... (...Read Entire Entry)Who will police the privacy police?
A newly-released report by the Government Accountability Office finds that, as I've been complaining, the DHS has failed to give the public the notices required by the Privacy Act as to what information the government is keeping about U.S. citizens and residents, and how that information is being used. Without... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 15 May 2007
Did Chertoff lie to the European Parliament?
USA Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff was in Brussels Monday to testify before a hearing of the European Parliament's LIBE [Civil Liberties] Committee about Chertoff's department's desire for access to Passenger Name Records (PNR's) for flights between the USA and the European Union. After initially trying to ignore the... (...Read Entire Entry)Monday, 14 May 2007
TSA shows how well it protects personal data
Public Statement on Employee Data Security Incident WASHINGTON -- On Thursday, May 3, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) became aware of a potential data security incident involving approximately 100,000 archived employment records of individuals employed by the agency from January 2002 until August 2005. An external hard drive containing personnel... (...Read Entire Entry)USA-EU "Open Skies" agreement signed but won't go to the Senate
On 30 April 2007, representatives of the USA and the European Union signed a so-called Open Skies agreement revising the rules for airline flights between the USA and the EU. As I've noted in my analysis of the agreement and in my testimony to EU legislators and data protection authorities... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 11 May 2007
While I was away
I had a great time with Evan Korth's students at NYU, and at CFP in Montréal. But the hard disk on my home computer failed while I was out of town, and I'm still working on recovering as much as possible of my data. A friendly reminder: How recent are... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 3 May 2007
"Your Reputation Precedes You" (CFP 2007)
I'm on a panel entitled "Your Reputation Precedes You: The Transfer of European Union Passenger Name Records to the U.S. and Canada" today at the conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy . Here are links to some of the topics and previous articles I may mention in my talk: Freedom... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 27 April 2007
Identity Project comments on European Union CRS regulations
I've mentioned previously that the European Commission has been conducting a public consultation on whether to revise or entirely repeal the European Union's Code of Conduct for Computerized Reservation Systems (CRS's). Because there are no similar rules in any other jursidiction, but all the major CRS's do business in the... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 19 April 2007
What's wrong with "Open Skies"?
"Open" is good, right? And what could be wrong with a new civil aviation treaty between the USA and the European Union that would "liberate" trans-Atlantic flights from the bogeyman of government regulation? Actually, quite a lot is wrong with the proposed Open Skies treaty, although you wouldn't guess that... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 17 April 2007
On Internet radio Wednesday; in New York next Wednesday
I'll be talking about similar issues of privacy and travel in an Internet radio interview this Wednesday morning (18 April) and in a guest lecture at New York University next Wednesday afternoon (25 April): Wednesday, 18 April 2007: Guest on the inaugural broadcast of "Uncovering the Truth" with Katherine Albrecht... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 10 April 2007
Privacy advice for travel managers
I'm featured in the cover story on How to protect travelers' personal data on pages 28-32 of the April 2007 issue of T & E [Travel and Entertainment] Magazine , a leading trade journal for corporate travel managers. (If you don't like the funky page viewer on the magazine's Web... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 23 March 2007
European Parliament hearing on PNR's
I'm off to Brussels for this hearing on Monday (agenda , additional background documents ) on the transfer of passenger name record (PNR) data from the European union to the USA, and for a meeting of the "Article 29 Working Party" of E.U. national data protection authorities on the same... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 4 March 2007
Europe reconsidering rules for reservation systems
The European Commission (the executive branch of the European Union) has opened a two-month public consultation on possible revision or repeal of the EU Code of Conduct for Computerized Reservation Systems (CRS's). The outcome of this obscure and technical-seeming regulatory proceeding could have important effects worldwide -- not just or... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 18 February 2007
The Amazing Race 11 (All-Star Edition), Episode 1
Miami, FL (USA) - Quito (Ecuador) - Cotopaxi National Park (Ecuador) The cast of The Amazing Race , which started its new All-Star season tonight with relatively short flights from Miami to Quito, Ecuador, typically spend about two weeks of the month-long race around the world on airplanes or in... (...Read Entire Entry)Monday, 12 February 2007
Un/Welcome in Washington
I arrived in Washington, DC, yesterday evening (after speaking at the memorial for my dear departed friend Eric Weinberger Saturday in Boston, which made the trip to the East Coast not a complete waste) to what I can only describe as a mixed welcome. At the downtown D.C. hostel, the... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 23 January 2007
New USA passport rules frustrate last-minute travellers
Effective today, the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) requires passports for all air travel between the USA, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Today the New York Times reports on the problems the new rules has caused for would-be last-minute travellers from the USA, especially business travellers, who find... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 9 January 2007
RFID passports in the wild in the USA
I've just received my first report of a regular (non-diplomatic) USA passport with an RFID chip in it (with data fields already allocated on the chip for logs of the passport holder's movements): I applied for my passport in September 2006 and received it December 07, 2006. It has the... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 29 December 2006
More illegalities in the “Automated Targeting System”
Even while trying to defend the Automated Targeting System that is being used to deny travelers their rights on the basis of secret "risk assessments" that give each of us a terror score from secret databases of third-party and government information about us, the USA Department of Homeland Security (DHS)... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 15 December 2006
Congress, EU, and businesses question "targetting" of travellers
Questions are beginning to be asked by members of the U.S. Senate , the European Commission , the European Parliament , and business travellers about the illegal "Automated Targeting System" (ATS) that the USA Department of Homeland Security has already used to deny more than half a million people their... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 10 December 2006
The Amazing Race 10, Episode 12
Barcelona (Spain) - Paris (France) - Caen (France) - Bayeux (France) - Paris (France) - New York, NY (USA) - Garrison, NY (USA) (Warning to readers: If you didn't like last week's column because you didn't think it had enough to do with The Amazing Race television show, you probably... (...Read Entire Entry)Half a million people denied their right to travel
As I noted in one of my previous articles about the USA Department of Homeland Security's "Automated Targeting System" (ATS): I find it somewhat strange that the assignment of scores or "risk assessments" seems to have gotten more attention than the earlier DHS announcement of its intention to require individualized... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 8 December 2006
Chertoff thinks it’s “righteous” to give each traveller a terror score
Everywhere he goes this week, USA Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff is being dogged by questions about the illegality of the Automated Targeting System (ATS) first pointed out in the comments I filed with the DHS Monday on behalf of the Identity Project . Today in Atlanta, Chertoff had... (...Read Entire Entry)USA to continue targetting travellers
By a notice today in the Federal Register , the USA Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has resumed accepting public comments (search for docket 2006-0060, scroll through the list of documents on that docket to DHS-2006-0060-0062, and click on the "add comment" icon in the right-most column) on the Automated... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 7 December 2006
Fallout from illegal "targetting" of travellers
A Wired News story today, also picked up by Slashdot , gives the first hint of how officials of the USA Department of Homeland Security will try to rationalize having defied direct orders from Congress by developing and operating a secret "Automated Targeting System" that "builds a risk assessment for... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 3 December 2006
The Amazing Race 10, Episode 11 ("Automated Targeting System")
Ouarzazate (Morocco) - Casablanca (Morocco) - Barcelona (Spain) As The Amazing Race 10 around the world approaches its final leg, it's harmless fun to take part in the polls on the CBS Web site, where viewers score and rate which team of travellers is their favorite, which they think will... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 27 October 2006
TSA says their press releases are secret
Since being detained by police at Dulles Airport outside Washington, DC, in May of this year, I've been going through channels to find out what happened, why, and who the people were who demanded my papers, ordered me around, and called the police on me for questioning their authority. I've... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 19 October 2006
PASS card: RFID "passport light"
Aaron Caplan calls attention in a comment on an earlier article to this week's announcement by the USA Department of State of plans for a "card format passport" with a remotely-readable RFID chip. Citizens of the USA would (if, of course, other countries agree), be able to use this so-called... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 18 October 2006
Time for Europeans to ask for your travel records
In accordance with a decision made Monday, today the European Union and the USA Department of Homeland Security were expected to complete the signing of a face-saving new agreement on the use of passenger name record data by the DHS and other USA government agencies. This brings to an ignominious... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 15 October 2006
Permission to travel
Should you have to ask for permission from the government before you are allowed to get on a plane or cruise ship? ("Mother, may I?") The USA Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has proposed that airlines cruise lines, and operators of all other ships and planes -- including charter flights,... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 1 October 2006
Airlines and CRS's violating European privacy laws -- again
At midnight last night a decision of the European Court of Justice announced in May took effect, annulling both the "finding" by the European Council that airline reservation data transferred to the USA is protected adequately to satisfy European Union (EU) privacy and data protection rules, and the nonbinding "agreement"... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 28 September 2006
Governments prepare to log travellers' movements on passport chips
Earlier this month -- before being sidetracked with other deadlines , the start of a new season of The Amazing Race , and major electrical work on my house that made it hard to get any work done for the last week -- I attended a Symposium on Machine-Readable Travel... (...Read Entire Entry)Traveller registration redux
Depite a lack of enthusiasm by anyone except the vendors who hope to profit from operating a privatized traveller registration scheme, and total costs estimated at anywhere between US$100 and US$200 per person per year, the USA Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has published yet another round of draft plans and... (...Read Entire Entry)"Kip Hawley is an idiot."
On Monday the USA Transportation Security Administration revised its ever-changing but still secret rules (check out this parody if you want to try to keep track of the changes) for what it will allow airline passengers to carry onto planes. According to the offiical announcement by Kip Hawley, the Assistant... (...Read Entire Entry)Passports for travel between the USA, Canada, Mexico, etc.
If the USA government has its way, all citizens of the USA -- regardless of age, dual citizenship, etc. -- will need U.S. passports for air travel between the USA and all other countries in the Western Hemisphere, effective 8 January 2007. No more trips by air or sea across... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 14 September 2006
USA-EU dispute over PNR access escalates
While I was at the ICAO symposium on RFID passports (more on that anon -- and yes, I did get back to San Francisco well before yesterday's tragedy in downtown Montréal, just a few blocks from where I'd been), the ongoing trans-Atlantic debate on the use of data from airline... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 30 August 2006
"NOW WE KNOW WHERE YOU WANT TRAVEL"
I'm off to Montréal as an observer on behalf of the Identity Project at next week's International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Symposium on Machine-Readable Travel Documents (MRTD's, a/k/a passports and visas in which are embedded secretly and remotely readable RFID chips). So far as I can tell, this will be... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 29 August 2006
USA denies its citizens their right of return
The government is preventing a native-born citizen of this country from returning home to the USA from overseas: U.S. Blocks Men’s Return to California From Pakistan (New York Times, 29 August 2006) Jaber Ismail, who was born in the United States, was questioned by the F.B.I. at the American Embassy... (...Read Entire Entry)Monday, 28 August 2006
Fingerprints, photographs, and dossiers on USA "green card" holders
Today I filed comments with the USA Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on behalf of The Identity Project formally objecting to the DHS proposal that the fingerprinting, photographing, and logging of lifetime personal travel histories of visitors to the USA be expanded to include even lawful permanent residents of the... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 24 August 2006
European debate on airline reservation data
Government mandates for collection of, access to, and transfer to the USA of information from airline passenger name records (PNR's) are once again on the table in the European Union, with a European court decision annulling the present EU-USA agreement on PNR data transfers and a new EU directive on... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 18 August 2006
Freedom to travel as a human right
Several students at my introductory talk on "Travel Writing and the Travel Industry" at the 15th annual Book Passage Travel Writers and Photographers Conference this weekend asked about the sources I quoted on freedom to travel as a human right. The U.S. Constitution only hints at travel in the First... (...Read Entire Entry)What's on the horizon in travel security/surveillance?
I've spent a lot of time this week answering questions from other journalists about every aspect of air travel, from the most significant to the most mundane. Here's a sampling: Anti-terror hassles may keep travelers off planes (by Chris Welsch, Minneapolis Star Tribune Sunday travel section, 13 August 2006): Even... (...Read Entire Entry)Airlines and CRS's squabble over who owns travellers' reservations
An important series of investigative reports by my friend and respected trade journalist Dennis Schaal in the past week in Travel Weekly (free registration and cookie acceptance required) has exposed a significant spat between American Airlines (IATA code AA) and the Sabre computerized reservation system or CRS (a/k/a "global distribution... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 9 August 2006
USA Supreme Court asked to rule on secrecy of law restricting freedom of travel
A petition for certiorari was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court last Friday in the case of Gilmore v. Gonzales , asking the court to rule on whether "the government keep secret a directive that is generally applicable to millions of passengers every day", requiring them to present documentary evidence... (...Read Entire Entry)RFID passports cloned and shown to be poorly shielded
I wasn't there, but at a hacker conference last weekend in Las Vegas, two different security research groups publicly demonstrated major vulnerabilities in the RFID passports now beginning to be issued by the USA and many other countries. Using a new German passport (based on the same ISO14443 and ICAO... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 1 August 2006
"Papers, please!"
Effective today, in addition to my ongoing writing for my books and this Web site and my other activities, I'm joining the Identity Project (PapersPlease.org) of the First Amendment Project as a travel expert and consultant. I'm delighted to be joining the IDP team of friends, with whom I look... (...Read Entire Entry)ICAO acknowledges risks of RFID passport "session keys"
I've noted previously that one of the most significant risks of secretly and remotely-readable Radio-Frequency Identification chips in passports -- even after the changes made to the State Department's original plans for RFID chips in USA passports -- is the potential for the unique chip ID numbers used as "session... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 28 July 2006
TSA report on what happened to me at Dulles Airport
In response to my requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Privacy Act, I've received a copy of the USA Transportation Security Administration's Incident Report on my detention, interrogation, and search for asking questions of the people demanding identification credentials of prospective passengers between the airline check-in counter... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 21 July 2006
Why was I detained by police at Dulles Airport?
It appears that even the FBI isn't sure what, if any, legal basis local law enforcement officers have for detentions of passengers at airports, such as I experienced in May at Dulles Airport, even when (as I don't think was the case with me) the would-be traveller is supected of... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 19 July 2006
DHS (doesn't) want comments on costs of passenger manifest rules
A week ago, The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) division of the USA Department of Homeland Security announced proposed new rules to require international airlines flying to, from, or even over the USA to give the CBP complete passenger and crew manifests between 15 minutes and an hour before push-back... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 16 July 2006
Dialogue with the TSA Privacy Officer
From: Edward Hasbrouck "edward@hasbrouck.org" To: Pietra, Peter, TSA OCC "Peter.Pietra@dhs.gov" Subject: Re: Follow-up to our conversation in San Francisco Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2006 22:33:24 -0700 On 10 Jul 2006 at 14:32, Pietra, Peter, TSA OCC "Peter.Pietra@dhs.gov" wrote: [Pietra:] As promised, I've looked into the incident you mentioned to me.... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 18 June 2006
GAO auditors still grade Secure Flight "incomplete"
In testimony this week to Congress, USA government auditors from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reiterated their earlier testimony to another Congressional hearing in February 2006: the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) still hasn't met any of the prerequisites set by Congress before the airline passenger "screening" and tracking scheme could... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 13 June 2006
Airlines object to traveller registration scheme
In a 1 June 2006 public letter to airport directors throughout the USA, the Air Transport Association of airlines based in the USA has reiterated that ATA's "member carriers remain oppsed to the RT [registered traveler] program as it is currently being developed , and urge that you [i.e. airports]... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 9 June 2006
Privacy advice to the Department of Homeland Security
Although most of the nine slots for "public" comments were taken by industry and corporate spokespeople, I did arrive early enough to get three minutes to deliver my extremely condensed and telegraphic testimony at Wednesday's hearing before the USA Department of Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity [Advisory] Committee. For... (...Read Entire Entry)AIRIMP requires airlines to accept more detailed passenger data
Two years ago airline associations in the USA (ATA) and internationally (IATA) jointly amended the specifications for the 28th edition of the "ATA/IATA Reservations Interline Message Procedures - Passenger" (AIRIMP) protocol to support, for the first time, transmission between airlines and reservation systems of detailed personally identified information (address, contact... (...Read Entire Entry)Expedia auditors lose laptop with customer credit card numbers
After it was reported in the press beginning last Friday, Expedia, Inc. (parent company of Expedia.com, Expedia.ca, .Expedia.co.uk, Expedia.de, Expedia.fr, Expedia.it, Expedia.nl, Hotwire.com, and Hotels.com, among other divisions and subsidiaries), admitted that a laptop computer containing (unencrypted) records on almost a quarter of a million Hotels.com customers, including names and... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 7 June 2006
DHS Privacy Committee hearing in San Francisco today
As I noted here two weeks ago, the USA Department of Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee holds it's first-ever public hearing in San Francisco today at the Clift Hotel (Ava and Rita Rooms), 495 Geary Street, 2 blocks from Union Square. It's an all-day meeting, from 8:30... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 6 June 2006
Unanswered questions at Dulles Airport
Since I write about the "how's" and "how-to's" of travel, every trip I take is a busman's holiday. Even on vacation, I'm always making mental notes, sometimes writing them down, occasionally taking photos, and often asking questions about the meaning of what I see happening. Like most travel writers, I... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 30 May 2006
EU- USA "agreement" and "findings" on airline reservation data transfers are invalid
As had been expected and as the Court's own "Advocate General" (investigating magistrate) had recommended , the Court of Justice of the European Community today ruled in two cases brought by the European Parliament, annulling both the agreement with the USA entered into by the European Commission to permit access... (...Read Entire Entry)Monday, 22 May 2006
Can I still get a USA passport without an RFID chip?
Lately more and more of my friends have been asking if there's still time to get a new or renewal USA passport before they all start being issued with embedded RFID chips that can't be disabled without invalidating the passport . Maybe, but you can no longer count on not... (...Read Entire Entry)"National Strategy To Combat Terrorist Travel"
For several years I and other travel privacy watchdogs been arguing that the goal of the USA government and its allies has become the creation -- in part, through the compelled conversion of existing travel information technology and operational infrastructure -- of a comprehensive system of surveillance of personal movement,... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 21 May 2006
Decision due 30 May 2006 on USA-EU "agreement" on airline passenger data
The Court of Justice of the European Communities has posted a schedule for the announcement 30 May 2006 of the court's decision on two lawsuits brought by the European Parliament two years ago against the European Commission and Council, challenging the validity of the finding that personal data in airline... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 3 May 2006
Identity theft from a discarded boarding pass
This week the Guardian (U.K.) newspaper picked up a story I first reported five years ago, describing how they were able to obtain an unsuspecting traveller's airline profile and personal data, using only the information on a discarded airline boarding pass stub. Exactly four years ago, I filed my first... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 26 April 2006
The Amazing Race 9, Episode 8 ("Registered Traveler")
Nizwa (Oman) - Perth (Australia) - Fremantle (Australia) - Rottnest Island (Australia) - Fremantle (Australia) Quick: What's the fastest way to get from Muscat to Perth? Sometimes there are many possible flight connections from point A to point B, and often the fastest or best route is less than obvious,... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 18 April 2006
TSA picks new propagandist and privacy director
This month the USA Transportation Secuirty Administration (TSA) has announced the appointment of new directors of its public relations and privacy offices. (The actual effective dates of the appointments weren't announced.) It's hard to find people willing to lie for a living, as has been routine for TSA and DHS... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 14 April 2006
Secretary of Homeland Security admits doubts on background checks
"I don't know ... that background checks ... will predict future behavior." (USA Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, quoted in an Associated Press story in the Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle . Thanks to Adam Shostack for bringing this to my attention.)... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 21 March 2006
European legislators challenge secrecy of report on PNR privacy
In May 2004, when the European Commission approved turning over PNR data from European Union airline reservations to the USA Department of Homeland Security (DHS), its approval was conditioned on DHS agreement to permit annual joint audits and reports, by the EU and the USA, on compliance with the restrictions... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 14 March 2006
What's behind the TSA's witness tampering?
Google TSA lawyers and one of my blog posts is the first search result. So CNN called me this morning to ask what I know about the USA Transportation Security Administration lawyer, Carla J. Martin, who was caught coaching witnesses on what testimony they should give in the court hearing... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 3 March 2006
Who is watching the watchers?
FBI takes airport spy devices (by Mark-Alexander Pieper, [Guam] Pacific Daily News, 4 March 2006): FBI agents have taken custody of mini-surveillance cameras and listening devices found Thursday at the island's airport.... Several listening devices and at least three small cameras were found after the Guam Department of Customs and... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 15 February 2006
No refund on Northwest Airlines if you won't produce ID
I mentioned in a recent article that airlines' rules explicitly require them to give you a full and unconditional refund -- even if your ticket was otherwise compeletely nonrefundable -- if they refuse to transport you because (among other reasons) you refuse to permit your person or belongings to be... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 9 February 2006
USA Senate hearing on "Registered Traveler" and "Secure Flight"
The full USA Senate Commitee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation is finally holding a hearing this morning -- originally scheduled for last month -- on the Transportation Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security proposals for traveller registration ("Registered Travaler", previously "Trusted Traveler") and for surveillance and tracking of airline... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 1 February 2006
RFID passport logo (or "mark of the beast"?)
How can you tell if your passport contains an RFID chip? Look for this logo on the label: If there's an RFID chip in your passport , identity thieves, terrorists, direct marketers, data aggregators, malicious governments, or anyone else with a radio receiver within 10 meters (30+ feet) or more... (...Read Entire Entry)Monday, 30 January 2006
Encrypted RFID passport data intercepted and cracked
A Dutch television news program has commissioned experiments by security research firm Riscure in which radio communications between the RFID chip in a prototype Dutch passport (using the same technology and encryption scheme recently adopted as an international standard and being deployed in USA passports) were intercepted, stored for analysis... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 27 January 2006
USA Court of Appeals ruling on airline ID requirements
Yesterday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, here in San Francisco, released its decision in Gilmore vs. Gonzales , the federal lawsuit challenging the secret USA Federal "security directive" which requires ... well, we still don't know what it actually requires, even after the court reviewed it... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 24 January 2006
New excuse for travel surveillance: medical quarantine
Public comments are due by 17:00 (5 p.m.) Washington time (GMT - 5) next Monday, 30 January 2006, on the latest proposal from the USA government for mandatory surveillance of travellers' movements. I've been puzzling for weeks about how to respond. The current proposal (70 Federal Register 71892-71948, 30 November... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 17 January 2006
USA government goal: Gather and use "Travel Intelligence"
At a joint news conference today in Washington, DC, USA Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced a joint vision to "Develop and use 'Travel Intelligence' before travelers arrive" in the USA (and after, it appears from the descriptions of the planned programs). It's... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 8 December 2005
Appeals Court hearing on airline ID requirement
As I mentioned yesterday, the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals heard oral argument this morning in Gilmore vs. Gonzales (originally Gilmore vs. Ashcroft ), the U.S. Federal case challenging the secrecy and the legality of the requirement for would-be travellers to "show ID" (a surprisingly ambiguous phrase) as a... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 7 December 2005
Court hearings and rallies this week for the right to travel
Thursday morning, 8 December 2005, in San Francisco the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals at 95-7th Street (the ornate old former Post Office at the corner of 7th and Mission Streets, across from the new Federal Courthouse under construction on the site of the former Greyhound bus station), Courtroom 3,... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 27 November 2005
Travel ID events at MIT, 5 December 2005
I won't be able to attend (I'll just be getting back from the ICANN meeting in Vancouver, Canada, where I hope to raise the issue of .travel ), but there will be two potentially very interesting gatherings, probably attended by some of the same people, at MIT on Monday, 5... (...Read Entire Entry)EU Court advisory opinion against USA access to airline reservation data
In his advisory opinion on a lawsuit initiated in June 2004 by the European Parliament, the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice has recommended that the Court annull both the agreement by the Council of the European Union to permit access by certain USA government agencies to airline... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 25 October 2005
The Amazing Race 8 (Family Edition), Episode 5 (RFID passports)
New Orleans, LA (USA) - Panama City (Panama) Just when the families on The Amazing Race 8 finally left the USA in tonight's episode, the USA Department of State today took the latest in its recent series of regulatory actions to make it more difficult for other families like them... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 7 October 2005
"Spot the Terrorist"
USA-EU dual citizen and fellow CFP-er Wendy Grossman has more on the new demands for passenger information by the USA government and airlines, as well as the latest USA plans for a Ministry of Silly Walks , in her net.wars column here and here : Spot the Terrorist ... Some... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 4 October 2005
USA requires passenger details from international airlines
Effective today airlines, cruise ships, and other vessels operating on international routes to or from the USA are required to provide the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) division of the USA Department of Homeland Security (DHS), electronically, in a standard format, with detailed information on all passengers and crew members,... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 28 September 2005
"International Perspectives on Privacy and Homeland Security"
Today the USA Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee is meeting in Bellingham, WA. Immediately preceding the presentation on Secure Flight by the USA Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the agenda includes a presentation on "International Perspective on Privacy and Homeland Security" from the office of... (...Read Entire Entry)Monday, 26 September 2005
Update on traveller registration programs
Just as the deployment of the Secure Flight airline passenger surveillance and screening program continues to be described as a "test" to evade Congressional restrictions on its deployment on other than a test basis , so a scheme to treat as second-class travellers those airline passengers who don't "voluntarily" register... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 22 September 2005
Whither "Secure Flight"?
As of today, there's still been no official announcement from the USA Transportation Security Administration (TSA) or its parent the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) concerning their plans for the Secure Flight airline passenger screening and surveillance system. Earlier reports had suggested that the TSA/DHS would publish a Privacy Act... (...Read Entire Entry)United Airlines to move its reservation database to Amadeus
United Airlines will be moving its reservation database to a computerized reservation system (CRS/GDS) based in the European Union, according to a joint announcement by United Airlines , Amadeus , and the Star Alliance . The move to a new host for United's database of passenger name records (PNR's) is... (...Read Entire Entry)Monday, 22 August 2005
Last-minute lobbying on California RFID bill
"Silicon Valley tech companies have launched an 11th-hour bid to stop state legislation" to regulate the use of secretly and remotely-readable RFID chips in identification documents issued by the state government of California, according to a report today in the San Jose Business Journal . Despite being limited to California,... (...Read Entire Entry)Saturday, 20 August 2005
ICAO standards and Chicago Convention amended to require machine-readable passports by 2010
A new "technical Standard 3.10" adopted by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and a parallel Amendment 19 to Annex 9 of the Chicago Convention on Internatonal Civil Aviation (one of the two main multilateral treaties governing international air transportation) took effect 11 July 2005 to require all passports issued... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 19 August 2005
Update on RFID passports and traveller tracking
The USA State Department's Passport Office has already issued some RFID passports to airline employees and plans to start issuing RFID passports to USA diplomats by the end of 2005 and to the general public in February 2006, according to August 2005 press reports. The State Department claims to have... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 18 August 2005
Update on "Secure Flight"
This summer there's been both a public sideshow about (relatively) minor privacy and legal violations by the USA Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in its ongoing testing of the "Secure Flight" airline passenger screening and surveillance scheme, and a larger unreported story of much more fundamental illegality and privacy invasion. In... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 26 April 2005
International Campaign Against Mass Surveillance
An International Campaign Against Mass Surveillance was launched 20 April 2005 in London, Manila, Ottawa and Washington,with initial endorsements on its declaration from almost one hundred groups from around the world. The introduction and detailed White Paper on the campaign's Web site speak for themselves, specifically in highlighting the significnace... (...Read Entire Entry)Follow-up to CFP debate on RFID passports
Lots of continuing reports and fallout from the panel and subsequent discussions on RFID chips in passports last week at the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference: Fed and activist:, Computers Freedom and Privacy Conference, Seattle, 2005: One man is balding, liverspotted, tie-wearing, and shouting. The other is wearing a long... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 17 April 2005
RFID passports at CFP
The next move is the RFID-enabled passport, which this week has provided the classic Computers, Freedom, and Privacy blood-on-the-carpet moments and which garnered for itself a couple of Big Brother Award nominations. The personae: Frank Moss, deputy assistant secretary for passport services at the Department of State, and, among others,... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 12 April 2005
Travel ID and the Travel Panopticon
Photo thanks to Fred Carter, Pyrik Photography Linked below are the handout and notes from my presentation on "Travel ID and the Travel Panopticon" during today's workshop, "Keeping an Eye on the Panopticon: Vanishing Anonymity" at the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy 2005 conference in Seattle: Handout: Chapter on Travel... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 5 April 2005
Comments on USA rules for RFID passports
Yesterday was the deadline for comments on the USA Department of State's proposed rules for RFID passports: American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU): Comments and background documents Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), PrivacyActivism, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, World Privacy Forum, and Bill Scannell: Comments (including extremely deatiled technical... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 29 March 2005
Auditors question TSA use of airline reservations
Two reports by different sets of internal USA government auditors have questioned the appropriateness and legality, and revealed more details, about past, present, and proposed uses by the USA Transportation Security Administration (TSA) of airline reservation data for "passenger screening" and other purposes. On Friday, 25 March 2005, the (acting)... (...Read Entire Entry)Deadlines loom for RFID tracking chips in USA passports
There's still time for USA citizens to get a new passport without an embedded RFID remote tracking chip -- but if you want one, you should apply at once. The Department of State is moving as fast as it can (slowed down only by technical difficulties -- RFID chips are... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 20 March 2005
FBI releases details of its files of airline reservations
I've been meaning to comment on two documents released by the USA Federal Bureau of Investigation in January 2005, in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by EPIC , giving details of the data from airline reservations collected by the FBI during its "PENTTBOMB" criminal investigation of the... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 17 March 2005
"Identification and Anonymity of Travellers" at CFP
The program for this year's Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference 12-15 April in Seattle has been posted. I'll be giving a presentation on "Identification and Anonymity of Travellers" as part of an all-day workshop on "Vanishing Anonymity" organized by The Anonymity Project on Tuesday, 12 April. The workshop, and the... (...Read Entire Entry)Monday, 13 December 2004
RFID and biometric passports move forward despite objections
Despite increasingly visible outcry against them both in the USA and Europe, RFID pssports including digitally encoded biometric data (such as fingerprints, photos, and/or iris scans) are moving toward adoption and deployment on both sides of the Atlantic. In the USA, the ACLU has posted excerpts on its passport Web... (...Read Entire Entry)"Privacy and Human Rights 2004" published
Privacy International international.org and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) have released their annual Privacy and Human Rights 2004 yearbook, including an entirely new chapter on Privacy and Travel of which I was the principal author (with several other significant contributors). Given book production schedules, it's inevitable that some important... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 12 December 2004
Congress enacts comprehensive travel surveillance law
This Tuesday, 7 December 2004, as its final act before adjourning until after newly-elected members take office in January, the lame-duck Congress of the USA gave final approval for the creation of a comprehensive system of government credentialling, tracking, and control of domestic and international travellers, as part of the... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 12 November 2004
TSA orders USA airlines to turn over June 2004 reservations
The USA Transportation Security Administration (TSA) today issued an order to all airlines based in the USA to turn over to the TSA, by 23 November 2004, passenger name records (PNR's) including data on flights in June 2004 for testing of the TSA's Secure Flight airline passenger identification, surveillance, and... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 11 November 2004
Does "behaviorial profiling" have to be racist to be wrong?
The widely-reprinted Associated Press report about the lawsuit filed yesterday against warrantless interrogations, demands for identification credentials, and detentions at Boston's Logan International Airport (IATA code "BOS"), as well as the editorial on the case in the Boston Globe this morning, discuss the lawsuit solely in terms of whether "behavioral... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 10 November 2004
ACLU files suit against "behavioral profiling" at Logan Airport
Keeping itself, and Massachusetts, on the cutting edge of the litigation over police searches, seizures, and interrogations of travellers, as well as police denials of access to public and/or common carrier transportation, the ACLU of Massachusetts has filed suit against Massport (the Massachusetts Port Authority, operator of Boston's Logan Airport)... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 9 November 2004
OMB approves data demand for "Secure Flight" testing
The USA Presidential Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved the proposed order from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to USA-based airlines requiring them to turn over all data in PNR's (reservations) that included flights within the USA in June 2004 for use in testing of the TSA's Secure... (...Read Entire Entry)First public peek at the work of the TSA "Ombudsman"
At the first court hearing last Thursday on the legality of so-called "No-Fly" and "Selectee" watch lists provided (secretly) to airlines by the USA Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and (secret) orders to airlines as to how they are to use these lists as the basis of disparate treatment or denial... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 7 November 2004
What's next for "Secure Flight" testing?
Two week's after the close the public comment period on testing of the USA Transportation Security Administration's (TSA's) proposed Secure Flight airline passenger "screening" scheme, there's been no comment from the TSA on when or if the tests will actually begin. Presumably, the next steps would be the award of... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 4 November 2004
Iran to join reciprocal fingerprinting of USA visitors
On the 25th anniversary of the takeover of the Embassy of the USA in Teheran, Iran , a bill to require fingerprinting of all USA citizens visiting Iran has been approved by a committee of Iran's parliament, and appears headed for enactment. Iran thus moves toward joining Brazil as the... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 3 November 2004
Hearing in Seattle on challenge to no-fly list
For the first time ever, lawyers for the USA Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will appear in court tomorrow in Seattle to try to defend their (still largely secret) procedures for the compilation and use by the TSA, law enforcement agencies, and airlines of "No-Fly" and "selectee" watch lists. In the... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 2 November 2004
New York Times on "Getting off a watch list"
Christopher Elliott reports today in the business section of the New York Times that, Getting Off a Security Watch List Is the Hard Part (free registration and cookie acceptance required): There is no way to find out if you are on the list until you check in for a flight.... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 29 October 2004
EU follows USA on surveillance of travellers
In a "race to the bottom" on protection of the right to travel and of travellers' privacy, the European Union is following the lead of the USA in mandating the construction -- in part through the use and conversion of existing travel industry systems -- of a comprehensive infrastructure of... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 27 October 2004
"Registered Terrorists"
Even the business travellers on whom the USA Transportation Security Administration (TSA) had undoubtedly counted for support of the TSA's Registered Traveler scheme -- one prong, along with Secure Flight as the other, of the bifurcated reincarnation of the CAPPS-II airline passenger surveillance, profiling, and monitoring system -- are turning... (...Read Entire Entry)Monday, 25 October 2004
Comments on "Secure Flight" testing and data dump
The public comment period on testing of the the proposed Secure Flight airline passenger surveillance and monitoring system intended as part of the replacement for CAPPS-II , and on a proposed order to airlines based in the USA to turn over all PNR's from June 2004 flights, closed today. My... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 15 October 2004
RFID passport data won't be encrypted
Contrary to what I wrote yesterday , the identification and biometric (digital photograph) data on RFID passports in the USA will not be encrypted. Jay Stanley of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Program describes what they were told in a briefing by Frank Moss, USA Deputy Assistant Secretary of State... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 14 October 2004
Time to get a new USA passport
Contracts were awarded today to Axalto and three other teams of vendors for the addition of secretly and remotely-readable radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips embedded in the photo and information page (inside front cover) of all new USA passports. In accordance with the timeline in the Request For Proposals , the... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 13 October 2004
USA airports and TSA adopt Israeli-style profiling
By the end of this month, USA Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents at two or more airports in the northeastern USA (presumably Boston's Logan International Airport, IATA code BOS, and at least one other as yet unnamed airport) are preparing to start Israeli-style profiling, stops, and questioning of airline passengers... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 12 October 2004
Coalition opposes restrictions on travel freedom and privacy
Congressional debate on bills purporting to "implement the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission" has bogged down in disputes between the different bills passed by the House and the Senate, and over their provisions to legalize in the USA what is being called, in Orwell-speak, extraordinary rendition , by which is... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 10 October 2004
TSA revives dormant air transport industry advisory panel
The largely-dormant Transportation Security Advisory Committee to the USA Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which was originally established by the TSA's predecessor, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the Department of Transportation (DOT), met on 30 September 2004 for the first time in 10 months. The interval was pretty typical, although... (...Read Entire Entry)Saturday, 9 October 2004
"Secure Flight" comments due by Monday, 25 October 2004
Public comments are open through Monday, 25 October 2004, on the Secure Flight airline passenger identification, selection, and surveillance system proposed by the USA Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and its Office of National Risk Assessment (ONRA). Together, the Secure Flight and Registered Traveler programs are intended to replace, and considerably... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 8 October 2004
TSA requests bids for "Secure Flight" tests
As of this week, the USA Transportation Security Administration is officially soliciting bids from would-be prime contractors for testing the Secure Flight airline passenger identification and selection system propsoed as a replacement for the supposedly-abandoned CAPPS-II passenger profiling scheme (bid solicitation reference number "HSTS04-04-R-SECFLIGHT"). The introductory synopsis to the TSA... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 5 October 2004
Ferry passenger searches challenged
A Vermont commuter who has been required to submit to warrantless, suspicionless searches of his car and belongings as a condition of travel on ferries across Lake Champlain between Vermont and New York has filed a Federal lawsuit , with the assistance of the Vermont chapter of the ACLU, against... (...Read Entire Entry)Monday, 4 October 2004
German privacy czar recommends minimizing data in PNR's
Interviewed for a feature on US-VISIT ( Kontrolle, Kontrolle, Kontrolle ), German data protection commissioner Peter Schaar recommends that travellers to the USA put only the minimum of essential and required information in their reservations ( PNR's ), to minimize the potential for misuse of personal data by authorities in... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 1 October 2004
UK announces "Semaphore" traveller surveillance scheme
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair this week announced the UK counterpart of the US-VISIT, CAPPS-II, and Registered Traveler programs in the USA: the co-called "Semaphore" program. It its official statement on the "Semaphore" program, the UK Home Office is much more forthright about its intentions than the USA Department of... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 30 September 2004
US-VISIT tracking extended to all except USA and Canadian citizens
Effective today, the US-VISIT program of fingerprinting, photographing, and compilation of lifetime travel dossiers on visitors to the USA will be extended to everyone crossing the borders of the USA except for citizens of the USA and Canada. When the US-VISIT program went into effect at the start of this... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 21 September 2004
TSA reveals some details of Secure Flight
The USA Transportation Security Administration today released drafts of its first official descriptions of the Secure Flight airline passenger surveillance, monitoring, and no-fly system According to today's TSA press release , the TSA intends to publish all of these in the Federal Register tomorrow: A Notice of Proposed Rule-Making from... (...Read Entire Entry)No mention of "Secure Flight" in Ridge talks with the EU
With an announcement of more details about the USA Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Secure Flight passenger surveillance and no-fly scheme imminent, and Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge in Europe for talks with European Union (EU) leaders on the use of airline passenger data by his Department of Homeland Security... (...Read Entire Entry)Monday, 20 September 2004
"Secure Flight" to be subject to same oversight as CAPPS-II
Both the House of Representatives and the Senate of the USA have approved identical language for inclusion in the "Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2005", H.R. 4567, that would subject the USA Transportation Security Administration's Secure Flight air traveller surveillance and no-fly scheme to the same Congressional and Government... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 19 September 2004
USA Dept. of Transportation dismisses complaint against Northwest Airlines for breach of privacy and lying
In an order of 10 September 2004, the USA Department of Transportation (DOT) has dismissed a complaint and request for enforcement action brought by the Electronic Privacy Information Center against Northwest Airlines (IATA airline code "NW"). According to the complaint, NW: has engaged in an unfair and deceptive practice by... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 10 September 2004
Senators propose sweeping "travel surveillance" scheme
On Tuesday, 7 September 2004, Democratic U.S. Senator Lieberman and Republican Senator McCain introduced S. 2774, a bipartisan 9/11 Commission Report Implementation Act of 2004 (this link is for the draft of the bill as initially introduced; you can check the status of the bill and any amendments or revisions:... (...Read Entire Entry)Another airline bankruptcy may be imminent
Rumors of an immiment major airline bankrupcy once again abound, with the New York Times reporting this morning that "US Airways appears all but certain to seek bankruptcy protection on Sunday". I've once again updated my FAQ on Airline Bankruptcies with the details on what this means for travellers, and... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 9 September 2004
Army says use of jetBlue reservations didn't violate Privacy Act
Wired News reporter Ryan Singel has posted a partially-censored copy he obtained under the Freedom of Information Act of the report of the U.S. Army Inspector General on the use of JetBlue Airways' entire reservation archive by a Total Terrorism Information Awareness program military subcontractor. The Inspector General's office concludes... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 8 September 2004
Ridge admits all air travellers may have to register with the government
Confirming what many of us have already inferred , USA Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge said yesterday, in response to questions following a speach at the National Press Club, that all would-be airline travellers may eventually be required to register with the Department of Homeland Security, eliminating any claim... (...Read Entire Entry)New blog by Ryan Singel
My neighbor Ryan Singel, who has been doing some of the most in-depth investigative reporting on airline "secuirty", privacy, and civil liberites, has started a new blog at SecondaryScreening.net . Subtitled, "A closer look at anti-terrorism, privacy and data mining", it includes links to his stories on Wired News as... (...Read Entire Entry)Appeal of decision on airline ID demands
The pending Federal court case challenging the secrecy of U.S. government orders requiring airline passengers to display identification credentials (or be denied common carrier transportation or subjected to more intrusive search), the secret procedure through which these orders were issued, and their Constitutionality has now been appealed to the Circuit... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 7 September 2004
"Secure Flight" succeeds CAPPS-II
On 26 August 2004, the USA Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced that the latest version of its airline passenger "screening" (identification, profiling, surveillance, and control) scheme will henceforth be referred to by the TSA as "Secure Flight", rather than as CAPPS-II . Few details about "Secure Flight" were provided in... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 12 August 2004
Congress sets hearings on transportation security
The Committees on Transportation of the USA Senate and House of Representatives have scheduled hearings Monday, August 16th in the Senate and August 25th in the House to condsider the recommnedations of the 9/11 Commission on aviation and transportation security . I expect that the public face of The Program... (...Read Entire Entry)AIRIMP adds support for additional passenger data
I've mentioned previously that airlines and computerized reservation systems (CRS's) don't have fields in their databases of passenger name records (PNR's) to accommodate the additional advance passenger information (API) data increasingly being requested by the USA and other governments for CAPPS-II and other "travel inteeligence gathering' programs, such as a... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 11 August 2004
Ridge: "Aggressive schedule" for new CAPPS-II
In an interview yesterday, USA Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge reportedly said that The Program No Longer Known As CAPPS-II will be rolled out today in a (secret, of course) meeting with other "security" (but not civil liberties) agencies: Ridge spoke about screening Tuesday at a meeting with USA... (...Read Entire Entry)"This 'Privocrat' Believes In the Freedom to Travel"
Today the Wall Street Journal published my letter in reply to last week's ad hominem attack on their op-ed page: This 'Privocrat' Believes in the Freedom to Travel In regard to Heather Mac Donald's Aug. 5 editorial-page commentary "Hijacked by the 'Privocrats'": Whatever Ms. Mac Donald means by calling me... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 10 August 2004
9/11 Commission recommends "Targeting travel"
Back in April, the USA Department of Homeland Security announced plans for a Data Integrity, Privacy, and Interoperability Advisory Committee . I applied, naturally, and this month got a letter from the DHS Privacy Office saying that, "We anticipate that recommendations for consideration will be submitted to the Office of... (...Read Entire Entry)Monday, 9 August 2004
ACLU targets airlines' role in the "Surveillance-Industrial Complex"
A new No Spy Pledge campaign announced today by the ACLU targets airlines and other travel companies as key retail businesses involved in the emerging "Surveillance-Industrial Complex" described in an ACLU report released in conjunction with the launch of the campaign. I highly recommend the report as an overview of... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 5 August 2004
CAPPS-II defenders won't give up
I'm denounced on the Op-Ed page of the Wall Street Journal today (and in a slightly different version on their Web site) as a "leading advocate" for travellers' civil liberties. I'll take the compliment. The late Dave Dellinger (who led massive anti-war demonstrations outside the White House while President Nixon... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 28 July 2004
"Identity is Front and Center at the Airport"
Bruce Schneier and I are quoted extensively in Michael Pastore's lead story today at InsideID.com, focusing on the key concept that, "Security in American airports is essentially an identity issue." Excerpts: Leading the fight against CAPPS II were the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and... (...Read Entire Entry)CAPPS-II overseer finally gets the spotlight
In November 2003 I reported on the skeletons in the closet of Stephen Thayer, who has been acting director of the Transportation Security Administration's Office of National Risk Assessment (ONRA) since the retirement in February 2004 of former ONRA Director (and architect of CAPPS-II) Ben H. Bell, Jr. (I've also... (...Read Entire Entry)Preliminary injunction against MBTA bag searches denied
The motion for a preliminary injunction against searches MBTA passengers' baggage without warrants or particularized suspicion was denied this morning, after yesterday's oral argument , according to the AP. No meaningful appeal is possible, since the issues had been narrowed (whether by the judge or by consent of the parties... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 27 July 2004
Federal judge takes MBTA passenger searches "under advisement"
Suspicionless Searches vs. Different Times (from Reinvented.net, reporting on this hearing ) It's unclear from this account whether the discrepancies between MBTA claims about "random" searches at the entrances to MBTA "paid" areas, and the reality of searches of passengers already in paid areas or even on moving trains ,... (...Read Entire Entry)Monday, 26 July 2004
Hearing tomorrow on challenge to MBTA dragnet
U.S. District Court Judge George A. O'Toole has scheduled an emergency hearing tomorrow, Tuesday, 27 July 2004 on the plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction against unwarranted searches without probable cause of passengers on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) public transit system. The case filed today is American Arab... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 23 July 2004
NLG to challenge MBTA searches
Press release today from the National Lawyers Guild, Massachusetts Chapter (reproduced here in full as not yet available on the NLG chapter Web site): Contact: Michael Avery, NLG [National] President, 617-335-5023 Urszula Masny-Latos, Director, NLG Massachusetts Chapter, 617-227-7335 NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD FILES LAWSUIT TO CHALLENGE MBTA SEARCH POLICY Boston -- The National... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 22 July 2004
False, incomplete "Privacy Statement" on PNR access by USA Homeland Security Dept.
The USA Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released a Customs and Border Protection Privacy Statement For PNR Data Received in Connection with Flights Between the U.S. and the European Union that grossly misstates the actual content and usage of the data in passenger name records (PNR's), and misleadingly fails... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 21 July 2004
ACLU asks Ridge, "Is CAPPS-II Dead?" and "What's Next?"
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sent a letter yesterday to Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, asking: is personal information collected for CAPPS II testing purposes being retained, and if so for what purpose and in what form will it be retained?; has any other data from Passenger Name... (...Read Entire Entry)Monday, 19 July 2004
Diplomatic protests at DHS orders against Pakistani-Americans
The recent orders from the USA Department of Homeland Security to its immigration inspectors to give "special" scrutiny at borders and ports to arriving Pakistanis and Pakistani-Americans, including citizens of the USA of Pakistani "descent" like me (my mother was a child of American expatriates born in what is now... (...Read Entire Entry)European privacy authorities respond to EU decision on PNR access by the USA
The European Union's Article 29 Data Protection Working Party -- the organization of national privacy protection officers from each EU member country -- has adopted an official response to the European Commission's finding and agreement to permit the USA government to access airline reservations from the EU, which are currently... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 18 July 2004
Editorial calls for new travel privacy law
Editorial reaction to the latest changes in the CAPPS-II airline passenger profiling and monitoring system has varied, from USA Today's Good riddance to the Boston Herald's Al-Qaeda wins one in the war on terror . Wired News features ex-National Security Agency agent Bill Scannell in The Man Who Helped Kill... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 16 July 2004
"Throw Momma from the train" (reprise)
My entry, Throw Momma from the train? inspired my real momma , Marguerite Helen (who can't drive, and rides the trains a lot, including MBTA rapid treansit and commuter trains and Amtrak), to write a song. "It just kept coming into my head as I went to bed last night."... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 15 July 2004
CAPPS-II is dead. Long live CAPPS-II!
Hours after announcing that the CAPPS-II airline passenger profiling and monitoring system would be renamed and/or merged into other programs rather than implemented by its original name, the USA Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) began floating trial balloons -- here and here and here and... (...Read Entire Entry)CAPPS-II to be renamed and/or merged into traveller registration program
USA Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge has confirmed in an interview with USA Today that the CAPPS-II airline passenger profiling and monitoring system will be renamed and/or merged into a system of (pseudo-voluntary) registration of travellers. USA Today headlined the story, "Plan to collect flier data canceled", which would... (...Read Entire Entry)"Throw Momma from the train"?
Press release: TSA Begins Third Phase of Rail Security Experiment Beginning Monday, passengers may be screened for explosives while traveling on Connecticut's Shoreline East commuter rail as part of the third stage of a pilot program exploring new measures for rail security. Passengers boarding from one of the eight Shoreline... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 14 July 2004
TSA admits CAPPS-II "back to the drawing board"
Responding to questions at a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing yesterday on his nomination as administrator of the USA Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Navy Admiral David M. Stone reportedly said the TSA is considering changing or eliminating major components of the CAPPS-II airline passenger profiling and monitoring proposal.... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 11 July 2004
"Agreement" and "Undertakings" on PNR transfers published by USA and EU
Statewatch notes the publication of the Undertakings on PNR transfers, including as an attechment the list of PNR and API elements to be transferred in the Federal Register (69 FR 41543-41547, 9 July 2004), and the publication of the PNR transfer Agreement (OJ L 235/12, 6 July 2004) in the... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 9 July 2004
MBTA board ignores continued protests of passenger stops and searches
Directors of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority ignored protesters at their meeting last night in Boston, refusing to debate their new policy of "random" stops and searches of transit passengers. Meanwhile, with growing national interest and media coverage of the preparations for the Democratic Party National Convention later this month... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 8 July 2004
My mother the terrorist
The USA Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has reportedly confirmed issuing orders last month to immigration inspectors at six USA airports (LAX, JFK, EWR, IAD, ORD, and DTW) to give special scrutiny to "all travelers of Pakistani descent, including U.S. citizens," according to several independent reports. The nature of the... (...Read Entire Entry)Today, police dogs on buses. Tomorrow, bagels and coffee, too.
Yesterday would-be travellers on interstate commuter buses from New Hampshire to Boston were required to submit to searches and dog-sniffing of themselves and their baggage by police before being allowed to board. The Boston Globe reports that more searches are planned, while the Associated Press (via the Portsmouth [NH] Herald),... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 7 July 2004
Don't register to fly.
Today the USA Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and several major airlines (starting with Northwest, to be followed by United and American) started providing separate security lines at certain hub airports for those of their elite frequent flyers who have volunteered to be photographed, fingerprinted, iris scanned (recording the patterns of... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 6 July 2004
Security expert criticizes US-VISIT
US-VISIT Is No Bargain (Bruce Schneier, eWeek, 5 July 2004) The contract for the next phase of the US-VISIT program costs $15 billion . It also has other costs: convenience, privacy, civil liberties and distraction from the greater danger of other terrorist threats. Despite its costs, US-VISIT doesn't offer us... (...Read Entire Entry)Saturday, 3 July 2004
Weather Forecast for Thursday: Tea in Boston Harbor
The Boston Globe reported yesterday on growing protests and threatened lawsuits against the MBTA's plans (already at least partially in effect, according to some reports) for "random" stops, searches, and demands for identification credentials on transit vehicles and in stations. The Globe also had a wishy-washy editorial, Searching Questions ,... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 2 July 2004
Privacy and Human Rights
I've posted a draft of a new section on Travel Privacy that I've been asked to contribute for the Privacy and Human Rights 2004 annual international survey of privacy law and developments. (Here's the 2003 edition .) Comments are welcome, as always. [Addendum, 13 December 2004: Here's the final version... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 1 July 2004
"Flight Risk" Friday on KPFA Morning Show
I'll be making a brief appearance tomorrow morning (Friday, 2 July 2004) sometime between 7:30 and 7:50 a.m. PDT (15:30-15:50 UTC/GMT) on The Morning Show on KPFA , 94.1 FM in Berkeley, CA. For those outside the broadcast area, there's real-time streaming audio and archived audio files . I'll be... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 29 June 2004
TSA lawyers reportedly willing to negotiate on CAPPS-II
Privacy advocates delays seeking injunction in TSA passenger screening (Dan Joling, Associated Press, via Anchorage Daily News ) More information on the case Court documents Previous report on the case... (...Read Entire Entry)Monday, 28 June 2004
T Riders Union, Rider Oversight Committee join opposition to MBTA searches
The following message was sent to several public mailing lists. Since I haven't been able to find in anywhere on the Web, I'm reposting it in full (with the author's permission): From: "Khalida Smalls" [Executive Director of the T Riders Union , a project of the Alliance for Community and... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 27 June 2004
Rally against MBTA bag searches
Adam Gaffin's Boston Common blog picks up on the following posting today by Ron Newman in the MBTA Police = Stasi? thread of the Wicked Good Conference . It was also posted to the "ne.transportation" Usenet newsgroup, which has had perhaps the most extensive discussion of this issue: A leaflet... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 25 June 2004
European Parliament president brings suit against PNR transfers to the USA
G.W. Bush arrived in Ireland tonight for the USA-European Union summit to a rude surprise: while Air Force One was in the air en route to Shannon, Irish MEP and outgoing European Parliament President Pat Cox announced as his final act in office his decision in Dublin to ask the... (...Read Entire Entry)National Lawyers Guild advises MBTA passengers on right not to consent to search
As a member of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), a Masschusetts native, a regular rider of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority on my visits back East, and an advocate for travellers, I was greatly pleased by today's announcement by the Massachusetts Chapter of the NLG of a public awareness campaign... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 24 June 2004
Consumer groups call on USA-EU summit to protect air travel data privacy
A coalition of USA and European Union consumer organizations has included a call for greater privacy protection for passenger name record (PNR) data as one of its three key requests to USA and EU leaders at their summit meeting tomorrow, 25 June 2004, at Dromoland Castle in County Clare, Ireland.... (...Read Entire Entry)More from the TSA on its CAPPS-II plans
The Electronic Privacy Information Center has posted the full 100 pages of Admiral David M. Stone's written responses to questions from the USA Senate Government Affairs Committee in conection with today's hearing on Stone's confirmation as head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 22 June 2004
TSA names more airlines, CRS's that turned over reservations for CAPPS-II tests
In preparation for today's USA Senate Government Affairs Committee hearing on the nomination of (former?) Admiral David M. Stone as Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration (i.e. the head of the TSA -- yet another military officer in charge of the nominally-civilian agency), Stone submitted written answers to... (...Read Entire Entry)Meanwhile, back in Boston...
As first noted in a comment last week in this blog, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) has already begun stopping "T" rail passengers and demanding identification, under threat that travellers will be detained, not merely expelled from T property, if they are unable or unwilling to provide satisfactory identification.... (...Read Entire Entry)More mandatory surprise warrantless searches of Amtrak passengers
The USA Transportation Security Administration is conducting a second round of tests this month of mandatory surprise warrantless searches of passengers and baggage on Amtrak trains, this time at Washington (DC) Union Station -- located, ironically, just 3 blocks from the Supreme Court of the USA. As in the first... (...Read Entire Entry)Marshmallow mis-arrest showcases risk of reliance on DHS watch lists
A pre-school teacher's aide from Wyoming erroneously included on a USA Department of Homeland Security watch list of people wanted on outstanding warrants for Federal crimes was arrested on arrival at the Port of Miami last week, on the basis of a year-old citation, which she had paid , issued... (...Read Entire Entry)Backlash against Supreme Court's Hiibel decision
In reposne to yesterday's decision by the Supreme Court of the USA in Hiibel v. Nevada , the Washington Post editorializes today that, "Targets of law enforcement have a right not to [cooperate]. Carving out exceptions, even seemingly innocent ones, is a bad idea." Closer to Hiibel's home, Nevada's largest... (...Read Entire Entry)Monday, 21 June 2004
USA Supreme Court upholds demand for traveller's name
The Supreme Court of the USA today announced its 5 to 4 decision in the case of Hiibel v. Nevada , upholding the criminal conviction of a person whose only offense was that, when stopped by a county sheriff while standing along a public right-of-way, he refused to "identify himself"... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 18 June 2004
USA Senate schedules hearings on aviation security
The USA Senate Commitee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has scheduled two hearings next week on aviation security and "screening". On Tuesday, 22 June 2004, the full Commitee will hold a hearing on Aviation Security including "testimony on the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) 2005 budget request [and] the progress... (...Read Entire Entry)Updated FAQ on dealing with bankrupt airlines
With United Airlines' application for loans from the USA government to bail it out of its ongoing bankruptcy having been denied again Wednesday by the USA Air Transportation Stabilization Board , and with US Airways (struggling to pay back the government loans that got it out of bankruptcy last year),... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 17 June 2004
Europarl party leaders endorse challenge to PNR agreement and adequacy finding
Later in the day yesterday, 16 June 2004, a majority of the presidents of parties in the European Parliament reportedly voted to endorse the JURI Committee's request to the Europarl President to seek the annulment by the European Court of Justice of the European Commission (EC) agreement for the the... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 16 June 2004
Europarl committee votes to bring new challenge to USA access to airline reservation data
The President of the European Parliament was requested today to bring new legal actions before the European Court of Justice, to ask the Court to annul both the European Commission's finding that airline passenger data is "adequately" protected by the USA Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the "Agreement" signed... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 15 June 2004
Federal judge orders review of TSA secrecy about "No-Fly List"
After reviewing blanket claims by the USA Transportation Security Administration, Department of Justice, and FBI that information concerning the so-called "'no-fly'and other transportation watch lists" is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), a federal judge in San Francsico ruled today that "The Court's preliminary review of... (...Read Entire Entry)Monday, 14 June 2004
USA starts negotiations with Switzerland on access to airline passenger data
The USA is beginning discussions with Switzerland with the goal of obtaining Swiss permisison for USA access to airline reservation data collected in Switzerland, according to a report form Agence France-Press quoting a Swiss government aviation official. Because it is impossible to detemine from airline reservations (PNR's) where the data... (...Read Entire Entry)Same old lies from the DHS about CAPPS-II
A human-interest feature in USA Today on Nuala O'Connor Kelley, Chief Privacy Officer for the USA Department of Homeland Security, is accompanied by a sidebar described in the main story as "O'Connor Kelly Q&A" that repeats statements about the CAPPS-II airline passenger profiling and surveillance system that Ms. O'Connor Kelley... (...Read Entire Entry)G-8 plans air travel data sharing
At the the G-8 summit last week in Sea Island, Georgia, USA, heads of government of the USA, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Russia announced a Secure and Facilitated International Travel Initiative (SAFTI) which includes an agreement for "real-time data exchange with respect to ... advanced passenger information,... (...Read Entire Entry)Europarl special meeting on legality of PNR transfers to USA
The European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market (JURI) has been recalled to Brussels for a special meeting this Wednesday, 16 June 2004, to consider whether to initiate a new challenge with the European Court of Justice to the legality of the European Commission's purported agreement with... (...Read Entire Entry)Monday, 7 June 2004
"Welcome to America"
The ever-vigilant Michael Froomkin spotted a reprint of the latest outrage in USA government treatment of foreign visitors, from the Guardian (UK) newspaper: When writer Elena Lappin flew to LA, she dreamed of a sunkissed, laid-back city. But that was before airport officials decided to detain her as a threat... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 4 June 2004
US-VISIT prime contract for up to US$10 billion goes to Accenture
A consortium led by Accenture LLP has been awarded the prime contract for up to US$10 billion (suject to for the "US-VISIT" visitor surveillance system, according to an announcement by the USA Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Accenture was originally Andersen Consulting, the consulting division of the Arthur Andersen accounting... (...Read Entire Entry)CAPPS-II may be "phased in gradually", says DHS
In the first public admission that the USA Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may have to scale back or postpone its plans for the CAPPS-II airline passenger profiling and monitoring system, DHS Undersecretary for Border and Transportation Security Asa Hutchinson told a Reuters "Air and Defense Summit" yesterday: The United... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 28 May 2004
DHS, European Commission sign "deal" on airline reservations
On Friday, 28 June 2004, the USA Secretary of Homeland Security and representatives of the European Union signed an agreement negotiated between the DHS and the European Commssion that -- if and when it is ratified and comes into force, if and when the DHS publishes specified Undertakings in the... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 26 May 2004
DHS doesn't require transit passenger ID checks -- BART police chief
The USA Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not require -- even under its latest, still secret, rail security directive which was issued last Thursday and took effect Sunday -- the sort of transit and commuter rail passenger stops and ID checks that are being made by MBTA transit police... (...Read Entire Entry)Monday, 24 May 2004
Another data aggregator got airline reservations
In the course of an article on the efforts of high-technology companies on Masachusetts Route 128 to profit from the homeland security gravy train, the Boston Globe reports today that data aggregator LocatePLUS Holdings "has worked with the FBI to analyze the manifests of the four planes involved in the... (...Read Entire Entry)Sunday, 23 May 2004
"U.S. Nearing Deal on Way to Track Foreign Visitors"
A front-page story in the New York Times tomorrow, 24 May 2004, U.S. Nearing Deal on Way to Track Foreign Visitors, highlights the potential cost of the USA Department of Homeland Security's US-VISIT program for fingerprinting, photgraphing, and compiling lifetime dossiers on visitors to the USA. The Times says the... (...Read Entire Entry)Alaskans to Sue over CAPPS-II
Four Alaskans today announced plans for a Federal lawsuit that will "ask... the court to order the TSA [USA Transportation Security Administration] to tell us when a Security Directive is issued by the TSA so we can learn when they order the airlines to start sending passenger information to the... (...Read Entire Entry)Mixed reaction to police stops and ID checks on Mass. transit
Headlines today in Boston's two main newspapers exemplify the mixed reaction to yesterday's announcement that MBTA transit police, following training by Massachusetts state troopers (not a good sign, for those familiar with the reputation of the Mass. "staties"), plan to begin warrantless stops and "identification checks" of subway, streetcar, and... (...Read Entire Entry)Saturday, 22 May 2004
Police to begin warrantless ID stops of Boston-area subway and streetcar passengers
The Boston Globe reports today that, "MBTA [Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority] transit police confirmed yesterday they will begin stopping passengers for identification checks at various T locations, apparently as part of new national rail security measures. Although officials would release few details about the initiative, the identity checks will mark... (...Read Entire Entry)Friday, 21 May 2004
USA Congressional hearing on biometric identification of travellers
The Subcommittee on Aviation of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the USA House of Representatives (a mouthful, yes?) held a hearing this Wednesday, 19 May 2004, on "The Use Of Biometrics To Improve Aviation Security" and for other travel-related purposes. The witnesses included government representatives of the Border... (...Read Entire Entry)Thursday, 20 May 2004
Europarl leaders rip European Commission "deal" with the USA on airline reservations
The European Commission decisions in the past week approving access by the USA Department of Homeland Security to European Union airline reservations, for purposes including testing of the CAPPS-II pasenger profiling and surveillance system, have prompted immediate angry responses from leaders of the European Parliament. Statewatch reports that the heads... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 19 May 2004
European Commission declares USA travel privacy non-protection "adequate"
Last Thursday, 14 May 2004, the European Commission (EC) approved a decision finding that "the United States' Bureau of Customs and Border Protection [CBP] is considered to ensure an adequate level of protection for PNR data transferred from the [European] Community concerning flights to or from the United States, in... (...Read Entire Entry)Wednesday, 12 May 2004
Biometric ID cards
I'm leaving tonight for Boston (on jetBlue Airways, ironically, but I've said all along that, despite my discovery that they turned over their entire reservation archives to a military contractor, they aren't any worse than other airlines -- that sort of thing is, unfortunately, common) for tomorrow's seminar at Harvard... (...Read Entire Entry)Tuesday, 11 May 2004
ICAO ignores critics, keeps moving toward biometric/RFID passport standard
The Technical Advisory Group on Machine-Readable Travel Documents (TAG-MRTD) of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) will meet again next week at ICAO headquarters in Montréal, P.Q., Canada. "Further work on specifications for biometric-enabled passports and other travel documents will be the focus of the meeting," according to the ICAO... (...Read Entire Entry)Link |
Posted by Edward, 11 May 2004, 10:34 (10:34 AM)
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