Read this today:
US Customs and Border Protection issued a notice in the Federal Register yesterday which detailed the agency’s massive database that keeps risk assessments on every traveler entering or leaving the country.
…The system in question is the Automated Targeting System, which is associated with the previously-existing Treasury Enforcement Communications System.
If you leave the country, the government will suddenly know a lot about you. The Passenger Name Record alone contains names, addresses, telephone numbers, itineraries, frequent-flier information, e-mail addresses — even the name of your travel agent.That’s a lot of people who could be looking at your information and your government-designed risk assessment. The one person who won’t be looking at that information is you. The entire system is exempt from inspection and correction under provision 552a (j)(2) and (k)(2) of US Code Title 5, which allows such exemptions when the data in question involves law enforcement or intelligence information.
This means you can’t review your data for accuracy, and you can’t correct any errors.?
It seems that there are more and more of these stories coming out (post 9/11). It is scary and ineffective.