Sophie in ‘t Veld sues over US ‘risk assessment’
p2pnet news Politics:- | Freedom:- George W. Bush wants your personal information, p2pnet noted in 2006.
“And yours. And yours.”
It’s bad enough the outgoing Cheney / Bush administration is planning to use an Automated Targeting System (ATS) to award what some media are calling a ‘terror score’ to US citizens, we said, going on:
“But it doesn’t rest there. The US Department of Homeland Security also wants the addresses, credit card information, billing addresses, cellphone numbers and email addresses of everyone else in the world, including Canadians.”
Holland’s Sophie in ‘t Veld is a member of European Parliament for the social liberal party Democrats 66, says the Wikipedia. “In the 2004 internal party elections she defeated the sitting D66 MEPs,” it continues.
“She is member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe parliamentary group. Until 2004 she was the secretary general of the ELDR group in the Committee of the Regions. She is an Honorary Associate of the UK National Secular Society.”
She’s also been actively engaged in developing policies concerning the exchange of travelers’ data between the US and the European Union and now the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) is demanding the US government releases records about her ATS “risk assessment” score, “and other information gathered about her during her international travels.
The lawsuit comes just days after the disclosure that the U.S. and the European Union may soon finalize an agreement authorizing the transatlantic exchange of large amounts of personal data, it says, continuing >>>
During the ongoing and contentious debates between the U.S. and the EU over travelers’ records and the privacy rights of EU citizens, the U.S. government has repeatedly claimed that any person can obtain her records through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
To test those assurances, In ‘t Veld filed FOIA requests with the Homeland Security, Justice, and State Departments, asking for any information about her that is included in the various US programs and systems used to track international travelers.
However, the agencies failed to comply, as they’re required to do under federal law.
“The question of redress is the sticking point in the current discussions about data exchanges between the United States and the EU,” the EFF has her saying.
“It shows that gaining access to personal data held by U.S. agencies is very difficult, if not impossible.”
In ‘t Veld specifically requested data about herself that’s included in the ATS.
The DoH creates and assigns “risk assessment” scores to travelers as they enter and leave the US and once the assessment is made, “there is no way to challenge it, and the government will retain the information for many years – as well as make it available to federal, state, local, and foreign agencies in addition to contractors, grantees, consultants, and others,” states the EFF.
Here’s the official description >>>
The Treasury Enforcement Communications System is established as an overarching law enforcement information collection, targeting, and sharing environment. This environment is comprised of several modules designed to collect, maintain, and screen data, conduct targeting, and share information. Among these modules, the Automated Targeting System performs screening of both inbound and outbound cargo, travelers, and conveyances.
As part of this screening function, the Automated Targeting System compares information obtained from the public with a set series of queries designed to permit targeting of conveyances, goods, cargo, or persons to facilitate DHS’s border enforcement mission.
The risk assessment and links to information upon which the assessment is based, which are stored in the Automated Targeting System, are created from existing information in a number of sources, including, but not limited to: the trade community through the Automated Commercial System or its successor; the Automated Commercial Environment system; the traveling public through information submitted by their carrier to the Advance Passenger Information System; persons crossing the United States land border by automobile or on foot; the Treasury Enforcement Communications System, or its successor; or law enforcement information maintained in other parts of the Treasury Enforcement Communications System that pertain to persons, goods, or conveyances.
As part of the information it accesses for screening, Passenger Name Record (PNR) information, which is currently collected pursuant to an existing CBP regulation (19 CFR 122.49d) from both inbound and outbound travelers through the carrier upon which travel occurs, is stored in the Automated Targeting System. PNR is comprised of data which carriers collect as a matter of their usual business practice in negotiating and arranging the travel transaction.
Stay tuned.
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.Stumble It!
p2pnet – Bush targets, well, everyone, December 2, 2006
EFF – European Lawmaker Sues U.S. Agencies to Obtain Travel-Related and Other Personal Information, July 1, 2008
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