Government Computer News
DHS policy chief Baker defends passenger data analysis system
The Homeland Security Department is stepping up its efforts to fend off criticism of the data analysis system it uses to pinpoint travelers entering the country who pose the risk of carrying out criminal or terrorist acts.
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Publication of the department’s Privacy Impact Assessment last month led to a general outpouring of alarm about DHS’ use of data-mining methods to assign risk scores to all travelers — and to keep them for 40 years.
Stewart Baker, DHS’ assistant secretary for policy, today told a picked audience of policy specialists and a clutch of reporters that the department’s Automated Targeting System has repeatedly proved its worth. He told anecdotes about how ATS had helped finger travelers with terrorist links, who were carrying out criminal activities or who were actually bringing terrorist training tools in their luggage, but he omitted the actual names and identifying details of the accused.
Baker spoke at a panel session held by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. All the panelists were current or former DHS employees or advisers — but two out of them called into question the privacy protections built into ATS.
Privacy specialists Jim Harper, director of information studies at the Cato Institute and a member of a DHS privacy advisory panel, joined Mary De Rosa, senior fellow in the center’s technology and public policy program, in suggesting that the ATS privacy protection features were inadequate.
Baker’s panel presentation today mirrored an earlier international conference on biometrics and privacy that was held largely behind closed doors last month in that it provided Baker a platform to propound an expansive version of DHS’ need to gather and keep private information.
Like the biometric privacy conference held early last month, today’s panel discussion sharply limited Baker’s exposure to questions from the press and totally eliminated any participation by the general public or air travelers.
Baker’s seemed to cast doubt on a panelist’s statement that ATS assigns risk scores to travelers. However, panelist De Rosa reminded Baker that DHS’ recently released Privacy Impact Statement on the ATS refers to the system’s use of risk scoring. Department officials have repeatedly described and praised the ATS risk scoring system for several years.
Baker suggested that the system links mainly to passenger name records provided by airlines. In fact, as the ATS Privacy Impact Assessment describes, ATS gathers data from a range of law enforcement and intelligence systems. It then applies rules, which the department has never disclosed, to generate risk scores for travelers.
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