Airlines ordered to turn over private passenger data to Homeland Security departments

• Homeland security officials accidentally revealed on Friday that the Transportation Security Administration will soon officially order America's airlines to turn over a month of passenger data to test a new passenger screening system.
• The final rule (.pdf) ordering the airlines to provide data on all June 2004 domestic flights will be issued formally on Monday by the Transportation Security Administration.
• The TSA hopes to reduce the number of people flagged incorrectly by performing the checks itself using data fed to it by the airlines and a centralized terrorist watch list.
• Civil liberties advocates strongly opposed the order, citing privacy concerns and the proposed use of commercial credit databases to verify passengers' identification.
• The airlines prefaced their criticism by saying they wanted to work with the TSA, but went on to contend that the order would be expensive and would force them to choose between complying with an American anti-terrorism program or rejecting European privacy laws -- which could potentially prevent them from flying there.
• The airlines' trade and lobbying organization, the Air Transport Association, initially expressed concerns that the order was technically inadequate and its legal status unclear.
• The airlines also questioned whether the government had clearance from European Union officials to use data about European citizens.
• "Our concern is understandable: Airlines cannot be subject to the potentially conflicting demands of TSA's Secure Flight test program and European (or other nations') data protection requirements," wrote ATA Deputy General Counsel James L. Casey.
• The Business Travel Coalition, an advocacy group for large corporate travel purchasers, takes issue with the lack of notification to passengers.
• "We agree with several of (the) privacy groups that these passengers had no knowledge nor were given any ability to approve in advance that their data would be used down the road," said BTC chairman Kevin Mitchell.