March 10, 2003

Documentary Services Division
Attention: Docket Section, Room PL-401
Docket No. OST-1996-1437
Department of Transportation, SVC-124
Washington, DC 20590

Dear Director,

I am writing to express my opposition to the Department of Transportation's proposed exemption of risk assessments and the information contained in those assessments from the Privacy Act of 1974.  The proposal to exempt such a potentially broad and vaguely-defined system of records from the Privacy Act eviscerates the Privacy Act's protections. By storing massive amounts of information about every air traveler, this system would violate privacy and erode other civil liberties – without increasing security or making the public safer.

By exempting all risk assessment reports and the information contained in those reports, this third notice suffers from the same defects as the previous two notices published in the Federal Register.  Exempting risk assessment reports and the information that populates them would remove accountability to the individual.  Individuals would not be allowed to access the information contained about them, nor would they be notified if files were being kept on them or her. This is very serious in light of the fact that investigatory material could be included in these reports – without providing any mechanism for the individual to see if the information is correct; and that categories of sources of information would also be kept secret from the individual.

Even though the Privacy Act does allow for exemptions to protect national security and to help law enforcement, the exemptions that the DoT envisions are far too broad and allow the creation of large secret files on individuals – the very thing the Privacy Act was passed to prevent.

Finally, at a time when other surveillance systems such as the Total Information Awareness Program are coming under heavy scrutiny by Congress, a rule such as this, governing the collection, storage, and disclosure of sensitive personal information about virtually every US citizen, should be exposed to a much wider discussion and debate.

For these reasons the proposed rule should be withdrawn.

Thank you for your time and the opportunity to voice my concerns.

Sincerely,