From: <djg2120@columbia.edu>
  To  : <CPC@emoglen.law.columbia.edu>
  Date: Sat, 22 Apr 2006 14:14:31 -0400

Data-sharing between Homeland Security and the CDC

This is an interesting update from the ACLU regarding a data-sharing
agreement between the Dept. of Homeland Security and the CDC. To me
this represents a trend that is likely to become increasingly
common, as various governmental agencies will strengthen
cooperation in accumulating and interpreting consumer data. The
likely result is that more complete personal profiles can be
assembled.

Dan
            
ACLU Seeks Information on Secret Data-Sharing Agreement Between
Homeland Security and CDC (4/21/2006)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: media@aclu.org

Secret Agreement May Be Violating Privacy and Recent  European Union
Pact, ACLU Says

NEW YORK—Responding to the revelation that the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) has reached a secret agreement to share
airline passenger data with the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), the American Civil Liberties Union today said it
has asked the CDC to disclose details of the deal.

“The tracking of data on airline passengers, which can amount to
building lifetime dossiers on Americans, has been a hotly debated
issue for many years – and now we find out that two government
agencies may have agreed, behind the public’s back, to share data,”
said Barry Steinhardt, Director of the ACLU’s Technology and Liberty
Project.  “These agencies have no justification for instituting a
major new data-sharing arrangement on this issue, with all of its
implications for privacy, and keeping it hidden from public
scrutiny and debate.”

The ACLU’s request for information was filed today as a Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) request for a copy of the memorandum and
related information.

Disclosure of the secret agreement comes at a time when the CDC is
proposing controversial regulations that would require the airlines
to collect and turn over a broad array of personal information on
air travelers.  In formal comments about the draft regulations
submitted in March, the ACLU called the proposal “a coercive data
grab that will allow the unregulated data surveillance of hundreds
of millions of Americans.”  The surveillance of airline passengers
through data collection has also been debated in the context of the
government’s failed “CAPPS II” program and its current “Secure
Flight” program – both of which purport to protect against
terrorism by collecting information on millions of travelers.

The agreement was disclosed in comments on the CDC’s draft
regulations by the Air Transport Association of America, which said
that a written Memorandum of Understanding between the two agencies
reportedly includes “provisions for data sharing, including
allowing CDC access to passenger information.”

That deal, Steinhardt said, appears to violate an agreement between
the United States and the European Union over the sharing of
European passenger data.  Under the agreement, the European
Commission found that U.S. privacy protections were “adequate” to
protect the privacy of Europeans under the E.U. legal standard (a
finding that is currently being challenged by the European
Parliament in the European Court of Justice).  In return, DHS
agreed that the passenger data would not be used for any purpose
other than preventing acts of terrorism or other serious crimes.

“Once again, we are seeing that DHS cannot be trusted to exhibit
restraint in the handling of personal information,” said ACLU
Legislative Counsel Tim Sparapani.  “They collect information, say
they’ll use it for one purpose, and then they turn around and use
it for another.”  Added Steinhardt, “This provision violates not
only the agreement with the European Union, but a core principle of
privacy that is recognized around the world.”

The ACLU’s Freedom of Information Act request to the CDC is online
at: www.aclu.org/privacy/spying/25243lgl20060421.html

The ACLU’s comments on the proposed CDC information-collection
regulations are online at:
www.aclu.org/privacy/spying/25244leg20060421.html

Article available at:
http://www.aclu.org/privacy/spying/25246prs20060421.html


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