The American Civil Liberties Union Tuesday slammed the latest version of the airline passenger screening system for effectiveness and privacy concerns.
The "Secure Flight" system is the successor to the Computer Assisted Passenger Screening System, or CAPPS II, that was scrapped for a variety of problems. The new program is supposed to be tested in November and December.
The ACLU said it filed its critical comments with the Department of Homeland Security late Monday.
"We are concerned that the government is moving ahead with building this system before ironing out the fundamental problems with the old watch list systems on which it would be based," Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Program, said in a statement. "At best, 'Secure Flight' is a misnomer -- it still does not protect innocent travelers' safety or privacy."
The Business Travel Coalition joined the ACLU in criticizing the plan.
CAPPS II was criticized for being vulnerable to fake identification, reliance on commercial databases and factual errors.
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