Big Business Joins Fight Against New Airport Screening

February 11, 2004

Big Business Joins Fight Against New Airport Screening
Christian Science Monitor

NEW YORK – Fasten your seat belts and make sure your
tray tables are in the upright and locked position:
There could be turbulence ahead over the simple
booking of a flight. 

Corporate America has joined privacy advocates in
raising alarm over the Transportation Security
Agency's (TSA) plans to put a massive
airline-passenger screening system in place by this
summer. The chief concern: too many unanswered
questions.
 
Corporate executives like Black & Decker's Peter
Buchheit - who's responsible for the travel plans of
more than 4,000 employees worldwide - want to know how
this system will work and who will foot the bill. Mr.
Buchheit is also concerned about who will have access
to the information.

The Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening System
II or CAPPS II, will feed four pieces of passenger
information into public and private databases. It will
then assign a color-coded flag to each passenger:
green for go, yellow for more scrutiny and red - you
don't get near the plane.

The TSA says there will be an appeals process for
passengers who are tagged inappropriately, but it's
unclear how that will work - which worries businesses.

"We have quite a few people who work here who were
born in other countries," says Buchheit. "What happens
if they need to make a trip and they get flagged? Will
it take a couple of days or weeks or months before
they can travel?"

More than 100 members of the Business Travel Coalition
sent a letter to Congress this month urging more
hearings. "The awesome new power of linked and mined
public- and private-sector databases" demands more
scrutiny, they wrote.

Granted, many passengers worry about safety and
welcome stringent inspections. The question, say
experts, is how to balance safety with practicality -
and privacy.

"We like CAPPS II because it promises to improve the
travel experience by getting passengers through the
government screening process faster," says Doug Wells
of the Air Transport Association (ATA), the major
airlines' lobbying arm. "But our airline members do
have concerns about how passenger privacy will be
protected, who runs and manages the program, and who
gets access to the information."

For longtime critics of CAPPS, like Barry Steinhardt
of the American Civil Liberties Union, the addition of
the business community to the roster of concerned
flyers is "pivotal." "It's crucial that business
travelers who make up the backbone of the traveling
public, the travel agencies, and the airlines
themselves begin to wake up and realize this enormous
surveillance system is going to be built and we - the
traveling public - will be asked to foot the bill,"
says Mr. Steinhardt. "The TSA has not demonstrated
that it can actually make it work or make us any
safer."

The TSA disputes both charges, contending that the
system will be an improvement over current screening,
which simply tags things like unusual travel patterns
and cash payments. CAPPS II, it insists, improves a
many-layered approach designed to ensure checks and
balances.

The TSA hopes to have CAPPS II up and running this
year. But a number of stumbling blocks stand in the
way. The first is political. Last fall, Congress
required that CAPPS withstand scrutiny from the
General Accounting Office; if it was found ineffective
or intrusive, funding would be cut off. When President
Bush signed the bill, he challenged Congress' right to
impose that requirement. The GAO report is due out
Feb. 14, and depending on its findings, it could spark
a political showdown between the White House and
Congress.

Then there's the issue of international support. For
the system to work, other countries must sign on. So
far, the European Union is balking, because it does
not believe privacy will be properly protected.

Airlines themselves have also objected. While they say
they support the idea, they've refused to turn over
data until they're confident that it will be
protected. The TSA has said that it may simply require
airlines to turn over the data, but negotiations are
still under way.

The business community's concerns reflect those of the
airlines. Kevin Mitchell of the Business Travel
Coalition says the more he learns about CAPPS, the
more concerned he becomes. "There could be a good
strong rationale for CAPPS II, but it's such an
enormous undertaking, it needs a better public policy
debate," says Mr. Mitchell. "The TSA has not been
forthcoming on many of these policy questions. There's
an attitude that it's easier to seek forgiveness than
seek permission, and with a system like this, that's
not good enough."


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