HS Today discusses a new report (1 MB pdf) from the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General concerning privacy and the Transportation Security Administration.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has made great progress in establishing privacy programs to protect the personal information of air passengers and others but it could go further by setting up automatic privacy tools, suggested the inspector general (IG) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently. [...]

TSA generally handles this information within a framework that meets privacy expectations and adheres to federal privacy laws, the IG report noted. [...]

However, [the Office of Privacy Policy and Compliance] must manually search TSA information technology systems to determine if any personal data has been leaked through unauthorized access or disclosure, the report stated. Federal law and DHS regulations require that automated tools run these checks for the agency to ensure that no data leaks have occurred.

The TSA Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) must collaborate with the OPPC to identify appropriate tools and technologies to automate these privacy protections through research. [...]

In addition, TSA employees could use privacy training specific to their jobs, the report recommended. Although OPPC has initiated privacy training programs for employees, more than half of TSA employees felt the agency could do more to make the training readily available to them.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 and is filed under Identification, Security, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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