Business Travel Coalition wants to fight ATS database on travelers

[villager]

BTS' forwarded letter...

URGENT & IMPORTANT


Dear Industry Colleague,

You may have seen press reports in the past days, or BTC's Press Statement
today, regarding a truly massive and disturbing passenger profiling program
that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been testing for 4
years and is set to officially implement tomorrow, Monday, December 4. The
program called the Automated Targeting System (ATS) was begun as a cargo
screening program, but without any public debate or even U.S. Congressional
awareness, the system was trained on tens of millions of U.S. and non-U.S.
travelers entering and exiting the U.S. during the past several years. This
news caught virtually all industry observers by surprise when the Associated
Press broke the story last Thursday.

ATS is a truly monolithic data-mining program which allows (a) for the
aggregation of personal information on all business travelers entering or
exiting the U.S.; (b) forbids travelers from accessing and correcting
inaccuracies in their U.S. government dossiers; (c) provides for the sharing
of such information with foreign governments and third parties; and (d)
retains travelers' information for 40 years.

DHS has stated that the program "will be effective December 4, 2006 unless
comments are received that result in a contrary determination." BTC believes
that the serious problems raised in its DHS filing today, and those of other
individuals and organizations who have filed comments, indisputably require
such a "contrary determination." Regardless though, of whether or not DHS
proceeds with implementation on December 4, the issue is of an order of
magnitude of importance that it warrants swift and firm communications from
the industry.

Here is what BTC has done in the past 24 hours: (a) filed comments with DHS;
(b) issued a Press Statement; and (c) drafted a Signatory Letter from
worldwide travel industry participants to DHS Secretary Chertoff. These
documents can be accessed at
http://businesstravelcoalition.com/issues/ats.html.

I urge you to consider taking the following steps:

1. Review the BTC DHS filing and background information at the URL above.

2. Follow the simple steps and links at the above URL to file your own
comments with DHS, including if you disagree with BTC's.

3. Consider being a Signatory to the letter to DHS (strongly recommended).

4. Forward this email to customers, Association members, colleagues,
subscribers, etc. no matter the country—all travelers to and from the U.S.
are affected by this.

If you can be a Signatory to the DHS letter, please, by the close of
business on Wednesday, December 6, email BTC at
[e-mail] with your organization, name and title.
Please put "DHS" in the subject line. I have posted the Signatory Letter in
the bottom of this email for your convenience.

ATS is nothing less than a strategic issue for all organizations around the
globe that look after the interests of business and leisure travelers. I am
confident from past experience that we can make a difference on this issue.

Best regards,


Business Travel Coalition
Rue du Trône 130, B-1050 Brussels
214 Grouse Lane, Radnor, PA 19087
US phone: [phone]
Brazil phone: [phone]
http://businesstravelcoalition.com


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DRAFT - DRAFT - DRAFT

December 7, 2006

The Honorable Michael Chertoff
Secretary
Department of Homeland Security
Washington, D.C. 20528

Dear Secretary Chertoff:

We the undersigned corporate travel buyers, distributors, suppliers,
Associations and other industry participants from around the world write to
you to express our agreement with the filing on December 3 by the Business
Travel Coalition regarding the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's
Automated Targeting System (ATS).

We are deeply concerned that such a far reaching and invasive screening of
millions of business travelers entering and exiting the U.S. could do
significant personal harm to those whose interests we look after, and reduce
the productivity of the organizations that field business travelers.

ATS is a truly monolithic and disturbing data-mining program which allows
for the aggregation of personal information on business travelers; forbids
travelers from accessing and correcting inaccuracies; provides for the
sharing of such information with foreign governments and third parties; and
retains travelers' information for 40 years.

Of particular worry is that ATS was thought to be for cargo screening only
and we discovered in the newspapers only four days prior to official
implementation of ATS on December 4 that the program covers traveler
screening. What's more, ATS has been in an operational testing mode for some
four years without our knowledge or the apparent awareness of the U.S.
Congress or foreign governments whose citizens are being profiled without
their consent.

By comparison, ATS would appear to make CAPPS II seem fairly unobtrusive.
Such an unprecedented government passenger profiling initiative as ATS
clearly rises to and exceeds the level of public awareness and debate
required for CAPPS II. It is disturbing that we and the governments that
represent us have been virtually kept in the dark about the existence of ATS
as well as the details of its workings.

We Signatories to this letter urge you to suspend the ATS program
immediately; provide substantially more details on the program to us and our
elected representatives; and proceed with ATS only through an official
rulemaking with a significant public comment period, per requirements of the
U.S. Privacy Act of 1974.

Sincerely,

, ,
, ,
, ,

[villager]

1. for the a.m. traveler...

n/t