The Homeland Security Department has once again ruffled the feathers of citizens concerned about Big Brother-type programs by formulating a computer-generated process that ranks the risk each American and international traveler poses for terrorism or criminal acts.

Uneasiness about this Automated Targeting System stems from the fact that its four years old, was instituted without telling the American public, probes deeply into our personal records, forbids us from seeing the information and correcting what may be false, and that the records may be kept for 40 years.

ATS taps our motor vehicle and travel records, how we pay for tickets, seating preferences and what meals we order. Other information pulled into the risk analysis includes our home, billing and e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, the number of bags we take on trips, etc. It doesnt take any imagination to discern that the data also gives Homeland Security access to Social Security numbers, tax, credit, income, health and other personal facts.

The system is exempt from provisions of the Privacy Act designed to protect people from the dissemination of secret, inaccurate data. Risk assessments change automatically as new data is added — accurate or not.

Customs and border agents profile people entering the U.S. — about 400 million people a year — and all of their names are provided to ATS.

This is blatant government intrusion into our personal lives that many citizens fear is happening in a computerized world where little, if anything, is secret.
David Sobel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation calls it probably the most invasive system the government has yet employed in terms of number of people affected.

Data gathered about individuals can be shared with state, local and foreign governments and some private contractors, prompting Steven Yale-Loehr of Cornell Law School to say, Everybody else can see it, but you cant. Inaccurate assessments, he adds, could cost innocent people jobs, government contracts, licenses and other benefits. Such outcomes cant be corrected if their accuracy cant be challenged.

Revelations about ATS have prompted Democrats moving into leadership positions in the new Congress to question its legality and constitutionality. Rep. Martin Sabo of Minnesota, top Democrat on the House Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security, has written clauses into the past three spending bills to prevent funds from being used for computerized data-mining assigning risk to passengers whose names are not on government watch lists. Incoming Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., says the program invites abuse and the administration is using it in apparent violation of the law.

Homeland Security calls it one of the most advanced systems in the world, arguing that its ability to spot criminals and security threats would be critically impaired without ATS. HSD is supposedly reviewing what few public comments it has received about this secret system and, insiders say, is considering how to make citizens more aware of ATS and ways to correct errors. But its been in operation for four years, so much damage already has been done. Congress needs to control this program — Leahy is right to say such databanks are overdue for oversight.

Creating ATS should have been debated and decided publicly. There are serious doubts as to whether the backgrounds of all Americans who travel abroad should be surveyed and ranked in this way.

We question the value, accuracy and feasibility of such a program. It undermines freedoms on which this nation was built. The information it gathers could easily be misused. If we need such a system, Congress must provide precise oversight and insist on a way to purge bad information from records.

ATS is a dangerous intrusion into our personal lives. Secret records that shouldnt exist without our knowledge now shadow all of us. Its a sad statement about the direction our nation has headed.

Source: The Argus