U.S. tracks Canadians for terror traits

There was no official reaction from Ottawa to the U.S. program yesterday.

A consultation period inviting comments on the plan ends Monday at which time Washington will determine whether it needs to modify it before publishing the final rules, said homeland security spokesperson Jarod Agen.

Details of the program were placed on the electronic Federal Register here in early November, but the department did nothing to publicize it, Agen said, because it was not seeking new information, merely bringing existing programs under the homeland security umbrella.

The information remains in the government's possession for up to 40 years, he said, because it can sometimes take 10 years or more for terrorist plots to develop.

"If you booked your flight by cellphone and that cellphone shows up at a terrorist's safe house, you will be under greater scrutiny," he said.

Privacy advocates say the Bush administration was trying to hide the program.

"The Automated Targeting System mines a vast amount of data to create a `risk assessment' on hundreds of millions of people per year, a label that will follow them for the rest of their lives, as the data will be retained for 40 years,'' said the Electronic Privacy Information Centre.

"Yet the system is deeply flawed, and the funds spent turning ATS into a citizen profiling program would be better spent in perfecting its cargo screening process, so that port security can be stronger than a `house of cards,'" the privacy centre says.

The centre's executive director, Marc Rotenberg, said if the information is used for any other reason than to assess security risks, and it cannot be accessed by its subjects, "then I think the program should be shut down.''

Vermont Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, the judiciary committee chair in the new U.S. congress, said data banks such as ATS are due for oversight.

"That is going to change in the new congress,'' he told the Associated Press, which first revealed the existence of ATS.

David Sobel, senior counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, called the proposal "frightening'' and urged homeland security to "allow for an informed public debate on this dangerous proposal.''

The program was used to screen cargo in the early 1990s under the supervision of the American treasury department, then expanded to include passengers in the mid-1990s.

Following the 2001 terror attacks, however, the scope of information sought by the U.S. was greatly expanded and was the subject of much debate in Ottawa because it involved Canadian air carriers.

In its detailed privacy posting on its website, homeland security said data must be retained for up to 40 years "to cover the potentially active lifespan of individuals associated with terrorism or other criminal activities.''

It said, however, it would delete files if they are no longer relevant. But you won't know whether your file is active or deleted because the proposed rules also prevent any access to the data the U.S. has stored.

Most of the information comes from air carriers, Amtrak, the U.S. national rail carrier, chartered sea vessels and information provided by motor vehicle registration when your licence plate is scanned as you drive across the border.

According to the homeland security proposal, the information collected on you includes:

# The date of your reservations and your travel dates.

# Your name and the names of your travelling companions.

# Your address, your credit card information, your billing address, your cellphone number and email address.

# Where you like to sit on the plane and any special services — meals or otherwise — you request.

# Your frequent flyer points and your travel agency.

# The number of times you have booked one-way tickets.

# How many bags you check and their tag numbers, and whether you have ever booked a flight and not shown up.

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