February 7Ð14, 2002 Data Rape by Bruce Schimmel To do anything more than just look you over, police must first show some reasonable cause. But if the Federal Aviation Administration has its way, every time you board a plane, you will be data raped. And you wonÕt feel a thing. As reported recently in the Washington Post, FAA vendors are touting passenger-profiling systems that are now being tested as "unobtrusive." Convenient, too, since the background checks will reputedly reduce lines at airport checkpoints. Computer firms are currently developing prototypes to gather and compile data on travelers waiting to board planes. Among the kinds of information to be assembled about all passengers are their present and former addresses, their travel histories, records of real estate transactions, lists of phone calls theyÕve made and even the names of restaurants theyÕve eaten in. To spot conspiracies, personal data will be ground very fine; whom you know, and who knows whom will be extended beyond six degrees of separation. One software vendor boasts that their system will have "seven layers of passenger associates." So, if an old friend or lover Ñ unbeknownst to you Ñ is on board, the security system should be able to find them easily. And if what theyÕve done in the meantime is not so wonderful, their sin will be played forward to you. At the airport gate, the system will crunch the data and compile a list, ranking all passengers from lowest to highest risk, in what the industry calls a "threat index." So, instead screening each passenger individually, airport security will be able to zero in on those whose behavior or associates Ñ or associates of associates to the seventh degree Ñ qualifies them for further inquiry. To achieve this, industry officials are already reportedly asking lawmakers to curtail some of the privacy protections currently in the Fair Credit Reporting Act and in the DriverÕs Privacy Protection Act. Airport security experts hope the new system will catch crime before it is committed. "This technology," crows one potential FAA vendor, "gives us a pretty good idea of whatÕs going on in a personÕs mind." For law enforcement in general, this new system could be a boon. Once in place, an airport surveillance system designed to profile for terrorists could be tweaked to ferret out other kinds of evil doers. Civil rights advocates call that prospect frightening. Turn up the volume a bit," warns one privacy specialist, Richard M. Smith, in the Post, "and we [could] just use the air transportation system to catch everybody."