European Commission, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Want Answers About Border Security ProgramEuropean Commission, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Want Answers About Border Security Program

A European Union leader wants answers about a U.S. border security program, while Americans sue for more information about the system.

European Commissioner Franco Frattini issued a statement last week saying that information published by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about the Automated Targeting System differs from a recent agreement with the European Union that called on the U.S. to be more careful handling European passenger name records.

This week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a lawsuit demanding an urgent and expedited response to a Freedom of Information Act request about the ATS.

ATS assigns risk levels to people entering and leaving the country. In November, DHS announced that the program would launch in December, but Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff later said the program had been under way for several years.

The department wrote in a public notice that it will keep the data for up to 40 years and the data will be classified, meaning people could not access their scores or correct wrong information. Government entities will share the information.

DHS says it needs the program to protect national security against terrorist attacks. Chertoff told a group of lawyers that the department would be inundated with requests for information and requests for corrections if the contents of the database could be publicized.

DHS published a privacy impact assessment, as required by law. It said that officers will review the information before acting on it, that the database will be password-protected, and that those with access to the data will receive training on protecting it.

The EFF is seeking all Privacy Impact Assessments of the program, all records that describe redress for people who believe the system includes inaccurate information, and all records that discuss potential consequences for travelers.

"The news of this secret program sparked a nationwide uproar," EFF Senior Counsel David Sobel said in a prepared statement. "DHS needs to provide answers, and provide them quickly, to the millions of law-abiding citizens who are worried about this 'risk assessment score that will follow them throughout their lives."

EFF said the government has not announced the consequences for individuals who are labeled a threat. Sobel said that ATS is the type of system that Congress tried to ban in the Privacy Act of 1974.

Several members of Congress have criticized the program and indicated they are likely to hold hearings on it.

Now, Frattini, the European commissioner responsible for Justice, Freedom and Security, is also critical. On October 19, the E.U. and the U.S. agreed that airline carriers would protect the security of Passenger Name Records (PNR data). "Against this background, concern has been expressed in recent days following information published last month by the Department of Homeland Security on the Automated Targeting System," Frattini wrote in a letter last week. "This is a security screening system making a risk assessment of international travelers, relying, among other things, on PNR data. The information published by the DHS reveals significant differences between the way in which PNR data are handled within the Automated Targeting System on the one hand and the stricter regime for European PNR data according to the [agreement]."

Frattini went on to say that the E.U. is contacting U.S. officials to request formal confirmation that the way the ATS uses the passenger data adheres to the agreement.

The agreement expires in July and the European Commission plans to recommend a new agreement with a "high level of data protection," Frattini said.

"I have always taken the position that travelers must be informed when their PNR data may be transferred to competent authorities of third countries," he wrote, adding that the agreement acknowledges that. "We need security and privacy. We need an international agreement with the support of the public on both sides of the Atlantic and of the democratic representatives of the peoples."

Frattini said security efforts must be balanced to ensure they do not violate fundamental rights. He urged for closer cooperation between the two countries and said a high-level group is discussing the issue.