Alexandria, VA — The Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) last week announced its opposition of a computerized data-collection system that the federal government has been secretly using to profile all inbound and outbound travelers as part of its anti-terrorism efforts.
In its formal comments filed with the government, the ACTE is seeking to have a screening program known as the Automated Targeting System (ATS) suspended. The system has been employed for the last four years by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to collect private and sensitive data.
The records in the ATS are said to include travelers’ names and addresses; dates of travel; seating information; how they paid for their tickets; their frequent-flyer information; and their “no-show” histories. In the ATS — which the DHS recently and quietly made public — such data have been used to give each traveler a risk-assessment rating. The public cannot access the ATS, in which traveler profiles will be kept for 40 years, nor can individuals contest the information in those records.
ACTE is primarily concerned with ATS’ potential negative impact to the business travel and meetings industry due to faulty risk assessments, which could lead to false arrests and detainment of travelers.
The ATS was formally “launched” on Dec. 4. Scrutiny of the ATS from a number of civil liberties organizations and advocacy groups has been building since the system was disclosed. Incoming Senate Judiciary chairman Patrick Leahy, D-VT, has pledged greater oversight of the ATS and other such data banks.
“The announcement that ATS would become operational is troubling,” said Greeley Koch, ACTE president. “It is unthinkable that this process was developed and made operational during the last four years… It is also hard to believe that so many legislators were kept in the dark on this.”