We’ve been having a hard time keeping up with events over the last few weeks. Every time we think the keystone cops from the Department of Homeland Security can’t come up with anything dumber to do, they prove us wrong. At this point we’re not sure who is most deserving of derision: (1) the would-be […]
Today the Acting Director of the TSA is scheduled to appear before a Congressional subcommittee to testify about the posting of an unredacted version of the TSA’s “Screning Management Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)” on a government website. (Confirmation of President Obama’s nominee for TSA Director has been held up by questions about whether he […]
In the course of testimony before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, the Director of the FBI’s “Terrorist Screening Center” (TSC) has, for the first time, stated publicly what the government claims to be the “substantive derogatory criteria” used in the (secret, non-adversarial, extra-judicial) process of determining whether to place a name on the “No-Fly” list, […]
To: TSA.OCR-ExternalCompliance@dhs.gov, civil.liberties@dhs.gov Subject: National-origin discrimination in TSA “Screening Management SOP” Date: Friday, 11 December 2009 According to the TSA Civil Rights Policy Statement: “[T]he public we serve are to be treated in a fair, lawful, and nondiscriminatory manner, without regard to … national origin.” However, according to Appendix 2A-2.C.1(b)(iv) of the TSA Screening Management […]
The DHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has released a redacted version of a report (OIG-09-103) that was provided to Congress in August, evaluating the TSA’s “Traveler Redress Inquiry Program” (TRIP). The TRIP name may be corny, but it’s also oddly accurate: it’s a system for inquiries, not answers, and as the OIG concludes […]
We learned yesterday from the U.S Postal Service that the TSA has been assigned a new zip code, 20598 (or at least so we were told on the phone by the USPS Customer Affairs department — we have no way to verify whether it’s true, or what the “correct” zip code should be), replacing the […]
An anonymous traveler has posted the records of their international travel that were provided by the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) division of the Department of Homeland Security, in response to a request under the Privacy act using these forms updated from those used by the Identity Project in our original investigation of the CBP […]
Has anyone ever looked at your face and mistaken you for someone else? If so, and if you live in California, you could be a victim of a proposal by the California Department of Motor Vehicles which is now under consideration in the state legislature. At a hearing yesterday (May 13, 2009) before the Assembly […]
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 […]
(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 […]