The Transportation Security Administration is denying airline
passengers erroneously detained by an airport screening system any
meaningful redress, a critic of the agency said today at the second
public workshop held by the Homeland Security Department's Privacy
Office today. David Sobel, general counsel for the
Electronic Privacy Information Center, cited reports of people who have
been misidentified and detained through the Computer Assisted Passenger
Prescreening System (CAPPS) II and Secure Flight screening processes. DHS,
through TSA, is "conducting background checks on every citizen before
boarding flights, and many have encountered problems," Sobel said. Privacy
laws state that people have a right to access information about
themselves that the government holds. They can make corrections to that
information if they discover mistakes. DHS has exempted the screening
system from the Privacy Act, so people who have been misidentified
cannot make corrections or seek judicial redress, he said. "The
department has failed to create a meaningful redress system," he said.
"We don't know if a name is also on other lists and whether it will be
in the future. There is no real accountability or transparency." Elizabeth Withnell, DHS Privacy Office's chief counsel, spoke in response and challenged Sobel's criticisms. "There is a process in place for redress," she said. "We can debate whether it works."
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