DHS in massive collection data on the travel habits of Americans

Published 25 September 2007

DHS collects electronic records on the travel habits of millions of Americans who fly, drive, or take cruises abroad, retaining data on the individuals with whom they travel or plan to stay, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers have carried

DHS has embarked on a project aiming to collect electronic records on the travel habits of millions of Americans who fly, drive, or take cruises abroad, retaining data on the individuals with whom they travel or plan to stay, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers have carried, according to documents obtained by a group of civil liberties advocates and statements by government officials. The Washington Post’s Ellen Nakashima writes that the personal travel records will be stored for as long as fifteen years as part of DHS’s effort to assess the security threat posed by all travelers entering the country. Officials say the records, which are analyzed by the department’s Automated Targeting System, help border officials distinguish potential terrorists from innocent people entering the country. Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff said that “we need to be better at connecting the dots of terrorist-related information.” New details about the information being retained suggest that the government is monitoring the personal habits of travelers more closely than it has previously acknowledged. The details were learned when a group of activists requested copies of official records on their own travel. Those records included a description of a book on marijuana that one of them carried and small flashlights bearing the symbol of a marijuana leaf.

The Automated Targeting System has been used to screen passengers since the mid-1990s, but the collection of data for it has been greatly expanded and automated since 2002, according to former DHS officials.