The TSA, “Secure Flight”, and the no-fly list:

The report of the Secure Flight Privacy/IT Working Group is public, and Bruce Schneier, who was on the review committe, has a thoughtful (and troubling) overview of issues the report raises. Ed Felton, who was also on this committee, raises similar issues.

“Secure Flight” is the TSA’s next plan for, among other things, matching passengers with names on the Watch List and No-Fly List. Among the issues are:

• The TSA has not stated the goals of this program.
  
• The TSA has produced no comprehensive plan for overseeing the program.
  
• The TSA has produced no rules for protecting their data, or removing items from it.
  

Schneier ends this piece with his lovely mantra about the no-fly list:

Remember what the no-fly list is. It's a list of people who are so dangerous that they can't be allowed to board an airplane under any circumstances, yet so innocent that they can't be arrested -- even under the provisions of the PATRIOT Act.