Alaskans sue security agency to stop data dump

[The Straight Story]

Alaskans sue security agency to stop data dump

By Sarah Lai Stirland, National Journal's Technology Daily
Four Alaskans on Thursday sued to stop the Transportation Security Administration from destroying personal information it collected on airline passengers in order to test a government screening system.

The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Alaska, comes after the passengers asked the agency over several months to specify the information it had collected about them. The plaintiffs had traveled on domestic airlines during June 2004. All major airlines have provided the security unit with the passenger records of individuals who traveled during that month.

The complaint said the agency has been unable to fulfill their request. It also charged that the passengers have exhausted all administrative avenues available to them and so have turned to the court to stop TSA from destroying the records.

TSA said in the Federal Register that it would make efforts to give passengers the information if they request it. But it also said it plans to destroy the test data because it does not want to track people's travels. The agency has determined that federal rules allow it to destroy the information.

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