Public is said to be misled on passenger data

By Leslie Miller, Associated Press | March 26, 2005

WASHINGTON -- The Transportation Security Administration misled the public about its role in obtaining personal information about 12 million airline passengers to test a new computerized system that screens for terrorists, according to a government investigation.

The report, released yesterday by Richard L. Skinner, acting inspector general of the Homeland Security Department, said the agency deceived individuals, the press, and Congress in 2003 and 2004. It stopped short of saying the agency lied.

''TSA officials made inaccurate statements regarding these transfers that undermined public trust in the agency," the report said. ''These misstatements were apparently not meant to mischaracterize known facts. Instead, they were premised on an incomplete understanding of the underlying facts."

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, said the agency took months to disclose its role in getting the data.

The report comes at a sensitive time for the the security agency, which is using airline passenger data -- which can include credit card information, phone number, and address -- to test a computerized system for screening passengers, called Secure Flight.

Congress has said the agency cannot proceed with Secure Flight unless the Government Accountability Office reports that the technology ensures privacy and that the data is protected. That report is due Monday.

The report concluded that the the agency was inconsistent in protecting passengers' privacy as it developed a system to prescreen passengers. It acknowledged that the agency's environment for privacy has improved substantially.

Spokesman Mark Hatfield said the agency is committed to privacy of personal information. ''The core of our mission is preserving our freedoms, and that means doing the utmost to protect every American's privacy," he said.

The report cites several occasions where agency officials made inaccurate statements about passenger data:

In September 2003, the agency's Freedom of Information Act staff received hundreds of requests from JetBlue passengers asking whether the agency had their records. After a cursory search, the FOIA staff posted a notice on the agency website that it had no JetBlue passenger data. The FOIA staff found JetBlue passenger records in the agency's possession in May; the notice stayed on the website more than a year.

In September 2003, a technology magazine reporter asked an agency spokesman whether real data were used to test the passenger prescreening system. The spokesman said only fake data were used; the responses ''were not accurate," the report said.

The report also disclosed that between February 2002 and June 2003, the agency had a role in 14 transfers of data involving at least 12 million records obtained without passengers' knowledge or permission from America West, American Airlines, Continental, Delta, Frontier, and JetBlue.

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