New travel plan would require in-depth checks

Brock N. Meeks Chief Washington correspondent • Profile • E-mail

WASHINGTON - The government is asking airline travelers to give up potentially a huge amount of personal information for what, at this point at least, could be little more than shorter waits at airport security checkpoints.

The Transportation Security Administration announced details of the Registered Traveler Program on Friday, but officials said the benefits for travelers were still being worked out and might not include an exemption from security searches.

Under the voluntary program, which begins in June, travelers would have to submit fingerprints and allow officials to conduct in-depth background checks, including in some cases providing access to personal and financial histories, to prove they aren't terrorists.

The background checks would be done by private companies, the TSA said, raising concerns that companies would be in the business of intelligence-gathering.

Digitized fingerprints
If approved for the program, travelers would pay a fee, likely between $80 and $100, for a "smart card" that contained their digitized photo and fingerprints.

The cards would allow travelers to use special security lanes at airports. Airline passengers participating in a pilot program in Orlando, Fla., spent an average of just four seconds in security lines, compared with other passengers, who waited four minutes and 16 seconds.

“You pretty much just waltzed right to the front, you put your finger down or they scanned your iris and within a millisecond your own picture comes up and identifies you and you go through,” said Bill Connors, executive director of the National Business Travel Association, who participated in a pilot program at Reagan National Airport in Washington.

“Now you still go through the magnetometer and all that screening stuff,” Connors said, “but the big advantage is, you get to go to the front of the line, or as we used to say when we were kids, you get to take cuts.”

Iris scans, though part of the pilot program, won’t be part of the official program.

Nothing certain beyond shorter lines
But beyond the promise of shorter security lines, the TSA was vague in providing details of any additional benefits travelers would receive in exchange for giving up much of their privacy.

TSA chief Kip Hawley has said other benefits could include passengers not having to take their shoes or coats off or remove their laptops from their cases.

But on Friday a TSA official told MSNBC.com that “nothing has been decided about whether [registered travelers] will be allowed to forgo any of the current screening procedures.” The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the benefits are still being worked out.

The agency said in a statement that "benefits will change from time to time in order to make it more difficult for terrorists to anticipate our security activities. Further, TSA will not exempt Registered Traveler participants from random additional screening.”

Airports, however, could kick in special incentives for Registered Travelers, such as offering special parking or VIP lounges, said Lauren Stover, a TSA spokesperson.  “Benefits may vary from airport to airport, depending on the scope of the program,” Stover said.

Despite the unanswered questions, Caleb Tiller, a spokesperson for the National Business Travelers Association predicted there are "a large number of people out there that are comfortable with the tradeoff of giving up personal information in return for convenience.

“And those that aren’t won’t participate and that’s fine,” Tiller said. Asked if he would enroll in the program, Tiller chuckled and said, “No, I don’t fly enough.”

Added Connors, the group's executive director, “We’ve been big proponents of this program because it’s an opt-in program; we don’t think this is anything we ought to force on anybody.  And frankly, some of my members wouldn’t want to have anything to do with this because they feel strongly about their civil liberties, and I respect that.  But I think the majority of my members and the majority of business travelers are extremely interested in this.”

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