PUBLIC COMMENT ON DHS-2006-0060
2 December 2006
Comment tracking number: DHS-2006-0060-DRAFT-0039
Document ID of this comment: DHS-2006-0060-0040

Although records in the proposed Automated Targeting System (ATS) would be made
available to US and non-US governments and to other third parties, these records
would not be available to the individuals to whom they pertain and therefore
individuals would be unable to verify and to correct erroneous data.  The
resulting transfer of such potential errors from ATS to other governments and
to private "contractors, grantees, experts, consultants, students, and others" 
would mean that these errors could be widely propagated and could render it
difficult or impossible for certain individuals to travel anywhere in the world,
for a term of up to forty years during which the data would be retained.  This
secret and unredressable system is exactly what the Privacy Act 1974 is meant
to prohibit.  The "Customer Satisfaction Unit" to which enquiries are directed
seems Orwellianly named since it isn't directed nor even permitted to satisfy
specific enquiries from individuals.

In asserting an exemption from the access requirements established by the
Privacy Act, this notice appeals to 5 USC 552a(j)(2) and 5 USC 552a(k)(2).
However, 5 USC(j)(2) clearly was written with "individual criminal offenders
and alleged offenders," "criminal investigation," and "arrest or indictment" in
mind.  At the time that the data are collected and entered into ATS, no
allegation of criminal offence exists, and therefore 5 USC 552a(j)(2) is not
germane to the proposed system of records.

Similarly, 552a(k)(2) provides that "if any individual is denied any right,
privilege, or benefit that he would otherwise be entitled by Federal law, or
for which he would otherwise be eligible," -- such as the right or privilege to
travel freely and without delay -- "as a result of the maintenance of such
material, such material shall be provided to such individual."  The only
exception to this requirement in 552a(k)(2) occurs when "disclosure of such
material would reveal the identity of a source who furnished information to the
Government under an express promise that the identity of the source would be
held in confidence."  In the case of ATS--P, though, the sources are known: they
are the commercial carriers who collected the Passenger Name Records.

The ATS as currently proposed clearly runs counter to the intent of the Privacy
Act, and ought at the least to be altered so as to allow individuals to examine
and to contest the content of records pertaining to them, in keeping with the
letter and the spirit of the Privacy Act, 5 USC 552a(d).

Matthew Belmonte
[address]