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Automated Targeting System

Latest News/Events

  • EPIC Recommends Suspension of Secret Traveler Profiling Program. In comments (pdf) to the Department of Homeland Security, EPIC urged the agency to either suspend the Automated Targeting System or to fully apply all Privacy Act safeguards to any individual subject to ATS. The system creates secret, terrorist "risk assessments" on tens of millions of U.S. citizens and foreign visitors. This new rulemaking was in response to public criticism that arose from DHS's November 2006 rulemaking, where EPIC led a coalition (pdf) in condemning the terrorist "scoring" of US travelers. Though DHS has made some positive changes, the Automated Targeting System still assigns terrorist risk assessments that are secret and unreviewable and the agency is still seeking broad exemptions from the federal Privacy Act. (Sept. 6, 2007)
  • DHS Announces New Rulemaking for Automated Targeting System. In response to a November rulemaking, DHS has made changes to the Automated Targeting System, a federal database that created secret, terrorist ratings on tens of millions of American citizens. Some positive changes include a significant reduction in the data retention period and the elimination of a routine use that was unnecessary and far too broad. However, there remain many of the security and privacy risks outlined in comments (pdf) previously filed by EPIC, 29 organizations and 16 privacy and technology experts that urged the agency to suspend the program and to fully enforce Privacy Act obligations. Comments on this new rulemaking are due on September 5. (Aug. 7, 2007)
  • Board Member Resigns Over White House Changes to Privacy Report. Lanny J. Davis, one of five members of the White House Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, resigned (pdf) yesterday in protest of the Bush administration's changes to the board's first annual report. The White House made more than 200 revisions to the report, including the deletion of a passage on anti-terrorism programs where intelligence officials said the programs had "potentially problematic" intrusions on civil liberties. Another change concerned the controversial Automated Targeting System. EPIC has published a detailed report (pdf) on the need to reform the Board. For more information, see EPIC's 9/11 Commission page. (May 15, 2007)

Introduction

The Automated Targeting System, part of the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection, was originally established to assess cargo that may pose a threat to the United States. Now the Department of Homeland Security proposes to use the system to establish a secret terrorism risk profile for millions of people, most of whom will be U.S. citizens. Simultaneously, it is seeking to remove Privacy Act safeguards for the database.

The Department of Homeland Security recently published a "Notice of Privacy Act system of records" for the Automated Targeting System ("ATS"), which it says "performs screening of both inbound and outbound cargo, travelers, and conveyances." ATS is associated with the Treasury Enforcement Communications System ("TECS"), a database containing "every possible type of information from a variety of Federal, state and local source."] The new description of the database differs significantly from an earlier one. As recently as March, ATS was described as "a computerized model that [Customs and Border Protection] officers use as a decision support tool to help them target oceangoing cargo containers for inspection." It is unknown when ATS expanded from merely screening shipping cargo to scrutinizing land and sea travelers. On the same day as the Homeland Security notice about the proposal to use ATS to target individuals, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee asked the department for a briefing about ATS.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, ATS assigns a "risk assessment," which is essentially a terrorist risk rating, to all people "seeking to enter or exit the United States," "engag[ing] in any form of trade or other commercial transaction related to the importation or exportation of merchandise," "employed in any capacity related to the transit of merchandise intended to cross the United States border," and "serv[ing] as operators, crew, or passengers on any vessel, vehicle, aircraft, or train who enters or exits the United States." This numbers in the hundreds of millions. In Fiscal Year 2005, Customs and Border Protection "processed 431 million pedestrians and passengers, 121 million privately owned vehicles, and processed and cleared 25.3 million sea, rail, and truck containers."

The Automated Targeting System's terrorist risk profiles will be secret, unreviewable, and maintained by the government for 40 years. The profiles will determine whether individuals will be subject to invasive searches of their persons or belongings, and whether U.S. citizens will be permitted to enter or exit the country. Individuals will not have judicially enforceable rights to access information about them contained in the system, nor to request correction of information that is inaccurate, irrelevant, untimely or incomplete.

The Automated Targeting System was created to screen shipping cargo, but it has many problems even completing that mission. An August 2006 report from the Democratic Staff of the House Committee on Homeland Security gave both port and border security low marks. For port security, the department's grade is a C-/D+. "There are many gaps remaining in our port security. As some experts have noted, the current port security regime is a 'house of cards,' in which containers are often not inspected and the government does not truly know which containers are 'high risk.'" More resources are needed. "Current staffing shortages at foreign seaports participating in CSI are resulting in thirty-five percent of 'high risk' containers not being inspected before they are shipped to the U.S." In fact, 75 percent "of our ports do not have the ability to screen a container for dirty bombs or nuclear weapons," according to the report.

EPIC has highlighted the problems inherent in passenger profiling systems in previous testimony and comments. In testimony before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (more commonly known as "the 9/11 Commission"), EPIC President Marc Rotenberg explained, "there are specific problems with information technologies for monitoring, tracking, and profiling. The techniques are imprecise, they are subject to abuse, and they are invariably applied to purposes other than those originally intended."

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. 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."

News Items

Resources

Comments Filed on the Automated Targeting System

  • EPIC, In Response to August 2007 Rulemaking (PDF) (Sept. 5, 2007)
  • Miss. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, Chairman-Designate of the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee (PDF) (Dec. 29, 2006)
  • EPIC, 29 organizations and 16 privacy and technology experts (PDF) (Dec. 4, 2006)
  • Identity Project (PDF) (Dec. 4, 2006), supplemental comments (PDF) (Dec. 29, 2006)
  • ACLU (HTML) (Dec. 1, 2006)
  • Electronic Frontier Foundation (PDF) (Nov. 30, 2006)

Previous Top News

  • Incoming House Homeland Security Chairman Criticizes ATS. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) has filed comments (pdf) questioning the constitutionality of the "Automated Targeting System," a federal database that creates secret terrorist ratings on tens of millions of U.S. citizens and foreign nationals. The Chairman-Designate of the House Homeland Security Committee said that even though he received a detailed briefing from Customs and Border Protection about ATS, he believed the program "may constitute violations of the privacy and civil liberties of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents." He also said there was a risk that the database "could be used as a warrantless well of evidence from which any law enforcement, regulatory or intelligence agency could dip at will -- without any probable cause, reasonable suspicion, or judicial oversight." (Jan. 3, 2007)
  • Homeland Security Official Call ATS Critics 'Paranoid.' In a speech, Stewart Baker, Assistant Secretary for Policy at the Department of Homeland Security, denied that the "Automated Targeting System" posed a threat to privacy and called the program's critics "paranoid." The Automated Targeting System is a federal database that creates secret terrorist ratings on all people crossing U.S. borders. Critics, including members of Congress, the EU and civil liberties groups (pdf), have questioned the legality of the system's secret and unreviewable terrorism risk profiles. (Dec. 19, 2006)
  • European Union Questions U.S. About Automated Targeting System. The European Union has asked the United States to clarify the "Automated Targeting System," a federal database that creates secret, terrorist ratings on all people crossing U.S. borders. The European Union asked how ATS is using and protecting the personal information on European citizens. "The information published by the DHS reveals significant differences between the way in which PNR data are handled within the Automated Targeting System on the one hand and the stricter regime for European PNR data according to" agreements between the U.S. and E.U. governments, the EU said. (Dec. 13, 2006)
  • Homeland Security Extends Comment Period on Citizen Profiling System. The Department of Homeland Security has extended until Friday, December 29 the deadline for public comments for the "Automated Targeting System," a federal database that creates secret terrorist ratings on tens of millions of American citizens. EPIC, 29 organizations and 16 privacy and technology experts filed comments (pdf) urging the agency to suspend the program and to fully enforce Privacy Act obligations. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said that "serious concerns have arisen that, with respect to U.S. citizens and possibly lawful permanent aliens, some elements of ATS as practiced may constitute violations of privacy or civil rights." The problems of the Automated Targeting System are described in the current EPIC Spotlight on Surveillance. The public may submit comments here (docket = DHS-2006-0060). (Dec. 8, 2006)
  • ATS May Violate Section of Homeland Security Appropriations Act. In comments (pdf) to the Department of Homeland Security, the Identity Project contends that ATS is prohibited by Section 514(e) of the 2007 Homeland Security Appropriations Act. The section states, "None of the funds provided in this or previous appropriations Acts may be utilized to develop or test algorithms assigning risk to passengers whose names are not on Government watch lists." Previous DHS appropriations acts have similar provisions. Congress's intent to prohibit traveler profiling seems clear. An agency spokesman said the language in the appropriations bill does not cover ATS and insisted the program is legal. (Dec. 4, 2006)
  • Coalition, Experts Urge End to Government Database that Assigns Terrorist Ratings to U.S. Citizens. In comments (pdf) filed with the Department of Homeland Security on Monday, a coalition of organizations and experts in technology and privacy urged the federal agency to curtail the "Automated Targeting System," a federal database that creates secret terrorist ratings on tens of millions of American citizens. The problems of the Automated Targeting System are described in the current EPIC Spotlight on Surveillance "Customs and Border Protection's Automated System Targets U.S. Citizens." (Dec. 4. 2006)