Amendments to the ATA/IATA Reservations Interline Message Procedures – Passenger (AIRIMP) take effect today, providing the first industry standard formats that airlines, travel agencies, and computerized reservation systems (CRSs) can use to transmit the additional information about travelers and prospective travelers newly required by the TSA for its Secure Flight airline passenger “screening” (surveillance and […]
The Identity Project participates actively in U.S., Canadian, European Union, ICAO, and other international regulatory and policy development proceedings through policy analysis, research, written comments, white papers, and testimony on proposed rules and regulatory notices. We monitor ID-related regulatory filings in the Federal Register and E.U. notices, but we also welcome your tips on upcoming […]
A TSA press release announces the “implementation” of the Secure Flight system for pre-departure “vetting” of airline passengers (i.e. deciding, according to a secret algorithm, whether to allow them to fly): To date TSA has assumed the watch list matching responsibility for passengers on domestic commercial flights with four volunteer aircraft operators and will add […]
According to a recently-released European Commission staff working document, the U.S. Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) is not “tantamount to the … visa … process” required for admission to the European “Schengen Zone”, and therefore does not give cause for the imposition of reciprocal visa requirements for US citizens seeking to enter Schengen countries. […]
On December 21, 2008, Amtrak police arrested a photographer taking pictures on a public platform at Penn Station in New York … in response to an Amtrak photo contest calling for the public to submit photos of Amtrak trains. We had heard about this story before, but now the Colbert Report has the story including […]
(Comments of the Identity Project at a workshop on “What’s on the agenda in the USA and Canada?” at the annual conference on Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection, Brussels, 16-17 January 2009) Two major issues have emerged in the last year in relation to personal data about travel: (1) The overall goal of the government […]
Just in time for the launch tomorrow night (Tuesday, Jan. 6th) of the the new DHS “reality” television show, Michael Yon has a timely post about an aspect of DHS reality that the “embedded” television production crews probably won’t show us: Border Bullies: The Department of Homeland Security in Action. Read the whole story. The […]
Over the weekend Stewart Baker of the DHS posted an entry in the DHS “Leadership Journal” blog entitled U.S. and EU Agree on Data Protection Principles. Readers unfamiliar with the “back story” might conclude from this — as Baker and the DHS no doubt hope they will — that some sort of formal negotiations have […]
The Obama Administration promises change, and invites suggestions for their agenda. Since they’ve asked, here are the first things we think the new administration should do to restore our right to travel, and to address the issues of ID requirements and identity-based government surveillance and control of travel and movement. Some of these can be […]
The DHS and TSA announced their final rule for the Secure Flight program for the control and surveillance of airline passengers during a photo op today at Reagan National Airport. We aren’t among the journalists to whom the TSA’s anonymous spin doctors chose to leak their plans. We’ll have more comments after we have reviewed […]