Fed Rates Travelers for Terrorism

Here is another example from the AP, of the feds going completely out of control in order to protect us from terrorists.

Without notifying the public, federal agents for the past four years have assigned millions of international travelers, including Americans, computer-generated scores rating the risk they pose of being terrorists or criminals.

The travelers are not allowed to see or directly challenge these risk assessments, which the government intends to keep on file for 40 years.

The scores are assigned to people entering and leaving the United States after computers assess their travel records, including where they are from, how they paid for tickets, their motor vehicle records, past one-way travel, seating preference and what kind of meal they ordered.

How incredibly stupid and short-sighted, especially considering there is no oversight and no way to ever appeal your rating.

Updated 12/7 - Well it seems I am not alone in being outraged by this practice. ComputerWorld is reporting the following:

More than two-dozen privacy groups have joined a growing chorus of voices calling for the immediate suspension of a federal data mining program that assigns secret terrorist ratings to millions of U.S. citizens and foreigners traveling to and from the country.

In formal comments filed with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Monday, the group called the government's Automated Targeting System (ATS) a "massive black box" for secretly profiling citizens in violation of the Privacy Act.

Updated 12/28- Good news from Blogger News Network -

Thanks to the efforts of privacy advocate groups, the government has halted the Secure Fight anti-terrorism screening program.

Secure Flight, the U.S. government’s stalled program to screen domestic air passengers against terrorism watch lists, violated federal law during a crucial test phase, according to a report to be issued today by the Homeland Security Department’s privacy office. The agency found that by gathering passenger data from commercial brokers in 2004 without notifying the passengers, the program violated a 1974 Privacy Act requirement that the public be made aware of any changes in a federal program that affects the privacy of U.S. citizens

Maybe we can make a difference ? Let me know