New travel plan would require in-depth checks

Extensive background checks
The TSA also announced Friday that private companies would conduct the in-depth security background checks on travelers, for example, “by using commercial data specifically authorized by customers, or by other voluntary means.”

Before the companies are allowed to sell Registered Traveler cards, they have to demonstrate to the TSA that they can somehow figure out whether applicants are members of terrorist sleeper cells by plowing through bank records, insurance data and other personal information available commercially — or by some other method.

Credit histories, property, insurance, criminal and other records all would be open to scrutiny.

TSA spokeswoman Amy von Walter said having private companies do the checks would help identify terrorists not already known to law enforcement or intelligence agencies.

But some companies that have expressed an interest in conducting the checks said they were  surprised at the extent of the checks the TSA expected.

“This would have to be measured against the commitment to privacy,” said Tom Blank, president of the newly formed Voluntary Credentialing Industry Coalition.

“Until we see a little more, I don’t want to say there’s concerns or a stumbling block,” said Blank, who was formerly acting deputy director of the TSA.

Carter Morris, who heads a group of 60 airports that support the Registered Traveler program, said it remains to be seen whether the TSA's requirements will discourage business participation.

“It’s a little early to say whether the whole program hangs in the balance,” Morris said. “The vendors are worried that it adds cost to their business model.”

Private intelligence-gathering?
James Dempsey, executive director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, said the idea that commercial data on travelers can somehow be used to find a sleeper cell is highly speculative.

“I’m not sure that Registered Traveler should be a research program,” Dempsey said.

Marcia Hofmann, an attorney with the privacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center, said it wasn’t clear whether federal privacy laws would apply to the program.

“It sounds like they want private companies to be in the business of law enforcement and intelligence-gathering,” Hofmann said.

Privacy advocates have criticized the TSA in the past for obtaining airline passengers’ personal data without their permission or knowledge and for secretly collecting personal information on at least 250,000 people.

Accuracy concerns
The agency was using the information to develop a program called Secure Flight that would check airline passengers’ names against terrorist watch lists every time they boarded a plane.

Congress has kept a close eye on the use of commercial data in Secure Flight because of concerns that commercial data is often inaccurate and could unfairly tag an innocent person as a terrorist.

Last year, a security breach at the data broker ChoicePoint Inc. resulted in scores of identities being stolen; another data loss affected 1.2 million federal employees with Bank of America charge cards. The incidents prompted an outcry for more regulation of the commercial data brokering business, which buys and sells sensitive information about nearly every adult American.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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