press release
 

International Signatories Call on DHS to Suspend ATS

Group Applauds European Commission Intervention

RADNOR PA., December 13, 2006–The Business Travel Coalition (BTC) today transmitted a Signatory Letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff regarding the Automated Targeting System (ATS) requesting its immediate suspension. The letter was signed by seven major U.S., Canadian and European travel industry associations as well as corporate travel buyers and travel management companies. The letter was also submitted to the DHS docket. (See letter here.)

Influential organizations signing the letter in support of BTC comments filed on December 3 in the DHS docket include the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies, the UK-based Guild of Travel Management Companies, the Netherlands Association for Travel Management, the Canadian-based Association of Retail Travel Agents, the UK-based Institute of Travel Management, the U.S.-based International Association of Exhibitions and Events and the U.S.-based Travel Management Alliance.

According to Signatories to the letter, ATS is a truly monolithic and disturbing data-mining program which allows for the aggregation of personal information on business travelers; forbids travelers from accessing and correcting inaccuracies; provides for the sharing of such information with foreign governments and third parties; and retains travelers’ personal information in a dossier for 40 years.

BTC chairman Kevin Mitchell stated, “It was welcome news today that the European Commission formally asked the U.S. government for answers with respect to the use of traveler data incorporated in ATS. According to a Reuters report today, ‘EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini said he asked the US government for clarification after a description published last month in the US Federal Register about its use of the data had raised concerns among lawmakers and privacy rights groups on both sides of the Atlantic.’”

The Reuters story continued, “‘We have sent today a letter to the US government to ask formal confirmation that the way European PNR (Passenger Name Record) data are handled in the ATS is the one described in the undertakings,’ Frattini told the European Parliament.”

The Signatory Letter to Secretary Chertoff concluded, “We Signatories to this letter urge you to suspend the ATS program immediately; provide substantially more details on the program to us and our elected representatives; and proceed with ATS only through an official rulemaking with a significant public comment period, per requirements of the U.S. Privacy Act of 1974.”