Bennie Thompson fights for the fate of Registered Traveller data
SHOULD the biometric data in defunct registered-traveller schemes be destroyed? American politicians and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) are considering this question at the moment.
America’s Registered Traveller programme, which gave fee-paying passengers access to accelerated security lines, has stopped working. The largest of the participating schemes was Clear, operated by Verified Identity Pass, which had some 165,000 customers and ceased operations in June.
The biometric data gathered by the participants—Clear, FLO and Vigilant Solutions—sits in a database called the Registered Traveler Central Information Management System (CIMS), where it remains the property of the scheme operators. What happens to the data now is the question vexing Washington.
The TSA wants to delete it. But Bennie Thompson and Peter King, two members of the House Homeland Security Committee, disagree. They have written to Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security Secretary, to outline their concerns.
We are writing to express our grave concerns about the TSA’s plans to have biometric data and unique identifiable information of all Registered Traveler program participants deleted.
We believe that the plan to sweep all of the information from this database is shortsighted and could potentially undermine restoration of the program, as travelers will have far less incentive to enroll in the program if there is no interoperability at airports around the country.
The Economist
9/1/9
Magnolia Tribune
