While the Transportation Security Administration has made
progress addressing congressional concerns as it implements
the “secure flight” passenger screening program, it has yet
to fully define system requirements and privacy advocates
and airlines are watching closely to see it if runs into
the same problems as its predecessor program, CAPPS, the
Government Accountability Office has reported.
The agency has drafted a concept of operations and systems
requirements, but needs to finalize them and complete
testing activities before the program becomes operational,
said GAO, adding that “until requirements are defined,
operating policies are finalized, and testing is
completed–scheduled for later in the system’s development,”
it cannot say if the program will fully address congressional
interest.
While TSA officials said testing has shown improvements over
the current prescreening system and that it has plans to use
analysts to improve the accuracy of data matches, the agency
still has to determine how passenger data will move from
carriers to TSA, according to GAO-05-356.
Further, it added that ability of the program to match
passenger and terrorist-screening data depends on the quality
of the data, also undetermined.
TSA has strengthened oversight and management of the program
and established relationships with key stakeholders, but air
carriers are worried that new system requirements could give
them more costs, the report said.
TSA has taken steps to protect passenger rights during testing,
but privacy impacts of the operational system need to be defined
further, said GAO.
