Warning! Dispatches from the privacy front, part 5

More color codes to brighten up your life. Do the Bushes have stock in Crayola?

The Bush administration is expected to order as soon as next month the first step in setting up databases on all air passengers, to be used to color-code each air traveler according to his or her potential threat level.

Passengers coded red would be stopped from boarding; yellow would mean additional screening at security checkpoints; and green would mean an only standard level of scrutiny.

Airlines and airline reservation companies would reportedly be forced to turn over all passenger records to U.S. government officials, who struck out in a trial program was based on voluntary surrender of airline industry data.

Not a single airline agreed to turn over data voluntarily. ... [Sidebar: Good for them!]

The TSA...says on its web site that it has "significantly narrowed how the second-generation system will use passenger information to make flying more secure without impinging on individual privacy rights."

The government says the databases will not include bank records, credit ratings, or medical records.

This last was a concession to privacy concerns. The original proposal would have established a very extensive personal database entry on every passenger. What's left is bad enough, as it will apparently include at least name, address, social security number, and birthdate and will establish a record of everywhere and everywhen you fly.

I was already a fan of Amtrak (and no, that's not in the abstract; I've logged over 15,000 miles touring the country that way), but this is making it look even better.

There will reportedly be some overlap between CAPPS II and the recently implemented U.S. VISIT program for fingerprinting and photographing foreigners, as both systems use the same terrorist and criminal watch lists. ...

[T]he department of Homeland Security's chief privacy officer, Nuala O'Connor Kelly, says that if the databases are merged, there would be strict rules about which agencies could use the information and how it could be used.

If?

Correction: According to the New York Times for January 13, the new database will include name, home address, telephone number, and birthdate. It does not mention including a Social Security number. The information will be sent to commercial database companies to search their files and respond with a numeric "score" that indicates the likelihood that the passenger's identity is legitimate.