US pushes EU to carry out contested post-9/11 passenger data deal

The European parliament is fighting a plan by the US
that requires personal information on European passengers to be submitted to the US.

It's possible the US will withdraw landing rights of European airlines if they fail to comply.

The data, which includes passenger credit card numbers, phone numbers and meal preferences, would "only be used on a case-by-case agreement", the US official said.

According to the PNR agreement, the EU would collect and deliver 34 such pieces of information to US authorities seeking to identify potential terrorists. The commission said it only recently discovered that the data could go to third-party states.

European parliamentary deputies wanted the number of items be reduced to 19, with greater emphasis on information that might be appropriate to law enforcement agencies rather than a passenger's preference for meat or fish.

I was doing some reading up on this, trying to find out what the 34 pieces of information were and I came across the CAPPS II system.
Perhaps this information will be used in that system.

The CAPPS II system applies to all persons traveling to, from or within the US by passenger air transportation.

Data, including Passenger Name Records, financial and transactional data, public-source information, and law enforcement and intelligence information will be analyzed by a risk-assessment engine.

The �black box� will review the data and translate it into a combined passenger risk score. The score may be low, unknown, or high, better understood as green, yellow, or red. Green-coded passengers will be able to pass directly through the normal security procedures, while yellow-coded passengers will be given heightened screening, and red-coded passengers will be referred to law enforcement and counterterrorism authorities. Officials estimate that fewer than 100 cases would be referred to law enforcement authorities each year, while an estimated 8% of passengers will receive yellow ratings. With an average of 2.5 million people flying daily, approximately 73 million people will be yellow-coded each year.

The data requested includes Passenger Credit Card numbers, Phone numbers, Meal preferences, Businesses frequented, How often a passenger has moved, Outstanding arrest warrants, How long the passenger has owned a car, Where family members live, Phonebooks or magazine subscriptions and
Credit header information among other items.

It really seems to me that they are getting too invasive and requiring too much information.
A lot of people are going to be flagged unnecessarily, in fact, you have an almost 1 in 10 chance of getting flagged and I really doubt all of this is going to stop terrorism.

CAPPS II is scheduled to be activated in August or September 2004.


[Edited on 26-4-2004 by AceOfBase]