The September 11/2001 Attack, Essay Example

The September 11/2001 attack on USA provoked the enhanced use computer assisted passenger prescreening system (CAPPS). This idea came about in the year1998 by the federal Aviation Administration whereby this organization implemented the use of CAPPS with the aim of being in a position to categorize passengers into two groups namely selectees and those who do not require extra screening/ scrutiny (Facts, 2004). Many people hold myths and controversies over the use of CAPPS like the degree of privacy for passengers since it authenticates their identities and  allows TSA ( Transportation Security Administration) to get access to passengers personal information which is available both in commercial and government databases.  This makes many people have opinion that it will pose a great threat when such information finds its way to unintended persons (Global, 2004).

The CAPPS woks analyzing  passengers details like home address, name, home telephone number as well as date of birth, which is a prerequisite for every passenger to fill before boarding an aircraft. The information is sent electronically to Federal Aviation Administration and Transportation Security Administration who determines whether these passengers can be a threat to security by the use of the data bases which has information like being linked to terrorist or being terrorists among many other details that they have (Ibid). The use of CAPPS and more so where it demands for personal information, truly infringes personal privacy.  The information might be used by unauthorized groups who might collude with airline operators to disclose such data thus not very safe to use especially where people don’t embrace professionalism and integrity. This technology uses color to determine the level of threat you might impose to others: green means you pose no threat, yellow signifies there is some potential threat while red means you have high potential of causing threat (Profiling, 2004).

Considering the above concerns, I would prefer to use airlines with CAPPS since security issues matter a lot and despite the system having some shortcomings like questionable privacy on personal information and also likely hood of terrorist using fake identification and names, life has no spare and people should rather get my personal information rather than die or suffer grievous body harm.

References

Fact Sheet: CAPPS II at a Glance (2004). Retrieved on 16/09/09 from: http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/press_release_0347.shtm

The Status of The Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS II). Retrieved on 16/09/09 from: http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/library/congress/2004_h/040317-memo.htm

CAPPS II: Government Surveillance via Passenger Profiling. (2004). Retrieved on 16/09/09 from: http://w2.eff.org/Privacy/cappsii/background.php