Legalities Loom Over Passenger Screening

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON - The federal government's latest attempt to improve security checks of airline passengers is prompting privacy concerns here and abroad.

The Transportation Security Administration has ordered U.S. airlines to turn over data on millions of passengers so the government can test the plan. Called "Secure Flight," it compares passenger records, from credit card numbers to addresses, with names on terrorist watch lists.

Though Secure Flight does not apply to foreign airlines, the names of European passengers who have flown on U.S. airlines probably are among those to be tested.

Peter Schaar, chairman of a group of European data commissioners that advises the European Commission (news - web sites), said Secure Flight may violate European privacy laws.

"Nobody knows how it works," Schaar said...........
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Meantime, the American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites) believes the Secure Flight test may violate a U.S. law passed last month. It forbids the Homeland Security Department from spending money to test whether passengers' identity can be verified using commercial databases until the Government Accountability Office has assessed the plan.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=513&ncid=691&e=1&u=/ap/20041119/ap_on_go_ot/passenger_screening