December 02, 2004 | (Secure) Flight Arrival Time Secure Flight is coming to an airport near you soon, according to the program's manager Justin Oberman. Oberman told a homeland security conference that the program will come soon to one or two airlines, according to William Jackson's story in Government Computer News. A couple of problems remain:

Although TSA has commandeered airlines’ passenger information from June 2004 to use in tests, Oberman said airlines currently don’t collect much of the information needed for Secure Flight. For instance, people often do not provide a home phone number or home address when making flight reservations. He also said there is no plan for how the privacy of additional personal information submitted to airlines would be protected while in the airlines’ possession. Such details presumably must be worked out before Secure Flight passes muster in a Government Accountability Office evaluation of security and privacy, mandated by Congress before the system can go live.

Also Congress only gave the TSA $35 million for 2005 fiscal year. I'm highly sceptical that this program will be rolled out in any form in early 2005. My guess, fall 2005 at the earliest and at only a couple airlines.

Posted by Ryan Singel at December 2, 2004 09:36 AM

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