The Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System II (CAPPS II) was a program of the

United States Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...

(DHS) instituted to increase security at airports by assessing the risk level of passengers before they're allowed to board. CAPPS II searched through information stored in

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

and commercial

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases s ...

s and assigned a color-coded level of risk to each passenger. Amid controversy from such organizations as the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

(ACLU), the

Electronic Privacy Information Center Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) is an independent nonprofit research center in Washington, D.C. EPIC's mission is to focus public attention on emerging privacy and related human rights issues. EPIC works to protect privacy, freedom ...

(EPIC), and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the program was terminated by President Bush in August 2004. The program was then replaced by a similar program called

Secure Flight Secure Flight is an airline passenger pre- screening program, implemented from August 2009 by the United States Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Secure Flight matches passenger information against watch lists maintained by the federa ...

in early 2005 generating the same concerns over privacy and civil liberties. However, due to public concerns, Secure Flight did not become operational until 2010. CAPPS II grounded innocent

Americans Americans are the citizens and nationals of the United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many dual citizens, expatriates, and permanent residents could also legally claim Ame ...

due to false positives. One notable example is the grounding of Senator

Ted Kennedy Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...

in 2004.

References

External links

ACLU's page on CAPPS IIEFF's Page on CAPPS II
United States Department of Homeland Security Legal issues related to the September 11 attacks Counterterrorism in the United States Mass surveillance Privacy in the United States Surveillance {{airport-stub

See also

References

External links