PRC Takes Aim at CAPPS II

Today several consumer privacy organizations including the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse submitted joint comments regarding the CAPPS II program. At the same time, the PRC filed suit against JetBlue Airways for violating its privacy policy in regards to sharing information about its passengers with third parties.

Along with Privacy Activism (www.privacyactivism.org), Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org), PrivacyActivism (www.privacyactivism.org), C.A.S.P.I.A.N (www.nocards.org) and other groups, the PRC submitted formal comments to the Privacy Office of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, urging it to stop development of a proposed airline passenger screening program administered by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

The program, called the Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening System (CAPPS II), will allow travel authorities to access personal information about each passenger from government and commercial databases. The groups state that the program violates consumers' rights and doesn't improve safety.
For more information, see Privacy Activism's release with a link to the comments at:
www.privacyactivism.org/Item/177

Similarly, the PRC along with co-plaintiff PrivacyActivism signed on to a complaint filed against JetBlue in San Diego Superior Court for violating its privacy policy when it disclosed consumer information to an outside party as part of the CAPPS II program to profile possible terrorists. The complaint filed on September 26 is available at:
www.privacyrights.org/ar/jetbluecase.htm

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