Report: TSA Misled Public on Personal Data

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON -- The Transportation Security Administration misled the public about its role in obtaining personal information about 12 million airline passengers to test a new computerized system that screens for terrorists, according to a government investigation.

The report, released Friday by Homeland Security Department Acting Inspector General Richard Skinner, said the agency deceived individuals, the press and Congress in 2003 and 2004. It stopped short of saying TSA lied.
...
The report comes at a sensitive time for the TSA, which is using airline passenger data -- which can include credit card information, phone number and address -- to test a computerized system for screening passengers, called Secure Flight.

Congress has said that TSA can't proceed with Secure Flight unless the Government Accountability Office reports that the technology ensures privacy and that the data is protected. That report is due Monday.

The report concluded that the TSA was inconsistent in protecting passengers' privacy as it developed a passenger prescreening system. It did acknowledge that the agency's environment for privacy has improved substantially.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-passenger-privacy,0,4469672.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[truthisfreedom]

1. ohhh, i get it... that's why the story about the data from the credit card

processing people being stolen by impostors was floated recently... because the TSA lost a whole bunch of our data due to bungled handling, and doesn't have any idea where it is!

[havocmom]

5. nah, credit card info REALLY was stolen

and a bunch of the victims are Fed employees the government sent the info to BofA for account applications WITHOUT any notice to the employees that they were doing it! If the cards had not been delivered, the employees would not have known they were missing since they didn't even know they had been applied for by proxy! And, yes, the cards are personal accounts in the employees' names and count against their credit score when they apply for any loans.

There were a few thousand pissed off worker bees. Things settled down a bit when the credit limits were lowered from the ridiculously high amounts they started with. Now, the workers find out their personal info has gone out to who knows where and they are a tad annoyed. They are getting the message that George W is NOT their friend.

Oh, BofA sent new cards, with new #s, but the employees still don't know who has their names, addresses, SS#s and so on. THAT part hasn't been corrected. They are all having to check often to make sure no loans have been taken out using their identities. What a fucking major screw up! And a big chunk of them are getting close to retirement. They wonder if somebody else is gonna get their pensions with the info being out there somewhere.

[leveymg]

8. They should worry more about who's going to get their identities

Hmm. Who might want to use the data about a bunch of senior level federal employees?

Likely, TSA and the other agencies put all these poor senior managers on the check before boarding list, and won't give them automatic access to secure installations and classified data anymore.

What a nightmare for these people. It might speed up their decisions to take early retirement.

[havocmom]

15. Not just senior level fed employees,

but basic worker bees in the field offices for USDA agencies. Yeah, it is a threat to the individual workers via the risk of identy threat AND a threat to the country, with who knows who possibily posing as Few workers. BIG and serious problem which is not being treated as such. Sending out new cards does not begin to address the seriousness of the problems.

[rodeodance]

2. mislead/decieved=lie

[EVDebs]

3. Total Information Awareness Goes Offshore to the Bahamas...

""It began as one of the Bush administration's most ambitious homeland security efforts, a passenger screening program designed to use commercial records, terrorist watch lists and computer software to assess millions of travelers and target those who might pose a threat.

The system has cost almost $100 million. But it has not been turned on because it sparked protests from lawmakers and civil liberties advocates, who said it intruded too deeply into the lives of ordinary Americans. The Bush administration put off testing until after the election. Now the choreographer of that program, a former intelligence official named Ben H. Bell III, is taking his ideas to a private company offshore, where he and his colleagues plan to use some of the same concepts, technology and contractors to assess people for risk, outside the reach of U.S. regulators, according to documents and interviews.

Bell's new employer, the Bahamas-based Global Information Group Ltd., intends to amass large databases of international records and analyze them in the coming years for corporations, government agencies and other information services. One of the first customers is information giant LexisNexis Group, one of the main contractors on the government system that was known until recently as the second generation of the Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-screening Program, or CAPPS II. The program is now known as Secure Flight.""

www.zmetro.com/archives/000901.php

As with SAIC, BofA, and Choicepoint hackings...you at least have access to US Justice when hacks are done inside the US; with the data outside US jurisdiction, any hacking done and resulting losses...well, you're on your own. Toufksyshitsky. And you thought the information belonged to YOU all along now didn't you ? C'mon, out with it ! It belongs to 'Little Brother' now, and don't you forget it.

BTW, they can charge 300% interest and it isn't called 'usury'. Go figure !

[madfloridian]

4. A couple of links. TIA, Capps II

Called Capps II, isn't it?
http://www.defensetech.org/archives/000769.html

Homeland Security, must do your own search. Acxiom, for one.
http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/index.jsp

Compilations here:
http://www.grassroots-america.org/hottopics

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. Do you realize that the absolute only U.S. government agency

in the entire fucking country that is worthy of our trust is the GAO?

How many government agencies does that make? 512 vs 1?

[matt819]

7. Gosh, I'm relieved. . .

They only misled and deceived. They didn't lie. I feel so much better.

Republicans = Liars
Bush Administration = Liars
Deceived = Lies
Misleading = Lies
Not entirely truthful = Lies

Just in case anyone was wondering.

[FlemingsGhost]

11. You forgot "misspoke."

You know, lied.

[Lori Price CLG]

9. Report: TSA Misled on Passenger Data

Report: TSA Misled on Passenger Data

A government investigation has found that the Transportation Security Administration misled the public about its role in obtaining personal information on 12 million airline passengers to test a new computerized, terrorist-screening system.

A report released Friday by Richard Skinner, acting inspector general of the Homeland Security Department, said the TSA had misinformed individuals, the media and Congress in 2003 and 2004. It stopped short of saying TSA lied.

"TSA officials made inaccurate statements regarding these transfers that undermined public trust in the agency," the report said. "These misstatements were apparently not meant to mischaracterize known facts. Instead, they were premised on an incomplete understanding of the underlying facts."

<snip>

Lori Price

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. I am shocked I tell you...

[UpInArms]

12. related: NYTs: Agency Partly to Blame in Misuse of Passenger Data, Report

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/26/politics/26passenger.html

WASHINGTON, March 25 - The Transportation Security Administration did not adequately monitor at least six airlines' transfer of sensitive passenger information to private companies and federal agencies in 2002 and 2003, according to a report by the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security released on Friday.

It was previously disclosed that privacy violations had occurred in the transfer of more than 12 million passenger records involving travel on America West Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue Airways and American Airlines, a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation. But this report, in analyzing 14 separate instances, examined in detail how responsible the transportation administration was for the mishandling of the data.

In one case, names, dates of birth and credit card information were given to the Secret Service by Delta Air Lines to help federal officials search for terrorists who might be plotting to attack the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. In most of the other cases, the data was transferred by the airlines to private companies that were trying to fine-tune a new security screening program, which has since been abandoned in part because of privacy concerns.

The auditors found only one instance in which personal data was disclosed in a public and clearly inappropriate way. In that case, Torch Concepts of Huntsville, Ala., a federal contractor, presented at a conference three Social Security numbers and 23 addresses that had been assigned to a single JetBlue passenger to demonstrate how difficult it was to match data accurately when creating identity profiles from multiple sources. The entire presentation, along with the personal data, was ultimately posted on the Internet.

...more...

[Catchawave]

13. USA Today: TSA misled public on personal data

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-03-26-tsa-data_x.htm?csp=34


WASHINGTON (AP) — The Transportation Security Administration misled the public about its role in obtaining personal information about 12 million airline passengers to test a new computerized system that screens for terrorists, according to a government investigation.
The report, released Friday by Homeland Security Department Acting Inspector General Richard Skinner, said the agency misinformed individuals, the press and Congress in 2003 and 2004. It stopped short of saying TSA lied.

more......

[bettyellen]

14. .