DHS expands mining of travel data while reducing logging and controls
The US Department of Homeland Security has announced plans to expand its data mining and “sharing”of DHS files about travelers, while removing some of the limited access controls and audit logging that it had only recently claimed to be putting in place for its Department-wide surveillance data framework:
DHS has a critical mission need to perform classified queries on its unclassified data in order to identify individuals supporting the terrorist activities of: (1) the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), (2) al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), (3) al-Nusrah Front, (4) affiliated offshoots of these groups, or (5) individuals seeking to join the Syria-Iraq conflict. (These individuals are often referred to as “foreign fighters” by the media and in public discourse.) The ability to perform classified searches of unclassified data for this uniquely time sensitive purpose will allow DHS to better identify and track foreign fighters who may seek to travel from, to, or through the United States. This type of comparison is a long-standing mission need; however, the specific threat has shortened the timeframe in which DHS must meet the need.
To meet this critical mission need, DHS will adopt an interim process that foregoes many of the automated protections of the DHS Data Framework, such as the tagging of necessary data sets in the unclassified data lake. By foregoing these automated protections, DHS will be able to expedite transfers of information from the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), the Advance Passenger Information System (APIS), Form I-94 records, and Passenger Name Records (PNR) directly from the unclassified DHS domain to the classified DHS domain through a manual process….
The previously announced “protections” on DHS use and sharing of personal data are fig leaves of little value to the subjects of DHS travel surveillance. But the DHS decision to “forego” those protections is significant for what it shows about how the DHS carries out its activities.