A boycott of Delta Airlines is being mounted in response to the airline's decision to test a controversial program that requires airline passengers to undergo background checks.

[ ... ]

Advocates of CAPPS II insist the system will identify terrorists while allowing law-abiding citizens to avoid the airport security shakedown. But privacy advocates like Scannell believe CAPPS II is highly intrusive and ineffective in identifying terrorists.

Delta will be trying out CAPPS II at three as-yet undisclosed airports during the month of March. It's a first step prior to potentially deploying CAPPS II screening throughout the country over the next year.

[ ... ]

Scannell first heard that Delta would be testing the CAPPS II program last Friday. He immediately registered BoycottDelta.org and worked all weekend to get the site up.

It went live late on Monday, and Scannell sent information about it to several security and privacy mailing lists. He said the site received about 25 e-mails an hour on Tuesday, all but one in complete support of the boycott.

Scannell argues that CAPPS II is ineffective in spotting would-be terrorists, as the system can easily be defeated by watching to see what sort of passengers it targets for special attention.

"CAPPS II threatens our liberty, but its security benefits are far from clear," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Program. "It will leave security screeners at sea in an ocean of private data; some of that data will be fraudulent, and much of it just plain wrong."

[ ... ]

Information from files about those individuals could also be shared with other government agencies at the federal, state and local levels, as well as with intelligence agencies such as the CIA and with foreign governments and international agencies -- all of which could use those designations for many purposes, including employment decisions and the granting of government benefits, according to the ACLU.

Undersecretary of Transportation for Security James M. Loy said in a statement that CAPPS II will respect citizens' privacy.

11:55:34 PM