Homeland Security Watch

DHS Chief Privacy Officer Hugo Teufel III last Friday announced that the Department has released four Privacy Act records involving DHS’s Automated Targeting System (ATS). These records have been posted to the department’s public Web site and were scheduled to appear Monday in the Federal Register.  The four records are an updated System of Records Notice (SORN), the Discussion of Public Comments Received on the SORN, a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for Privacy Act Exemptions, and a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA).  

After receiving hundreds of comments regarding the initial SORN published in November 2006, the department revised it in the following way:

•        ATS-P will retain the information for a far shorter period of time. The retention period is now 15 years (7 years active and 8 years dormant), a significant decrease from the proposed 40-year period.

•        Under ATS-P, the purposes for which Passenger Name Record data (PNR) may be used have been narrowed.

•        The SORN implements the department’s mixed system policy, which administratively extends the protections of the Privacy Act of 1974 to non-U.S. persons by providing access and redress to their PNR data.  

According to Teufel, DHS does not collect information on race, ethnicity, religion, or orientation, or make decisions based on such information, and to the extent such information may be provided by a carrier, the department filters that information.  More information about this announcement is available.