Remember CAPPS II, the program for screening airline passengers by using databases of personal information? This program was scrapped because the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was concerned that it posed an increasing threat to privacy and civil liberties. Replacing CAPPS II was the nicely-monikered “Secure Flight.” (EPIC’s website has a good history and set of links about the history of the program.) After names like Carnivore and Total Information Awareness, government officials have learned to rename things with soothing happy titles. Secure Flight was to be a kindler, gentler version of CAPPS II, with more limited uses of information and with more limited information gathering and retention. Privacy advocates were skeptical of Secure Flight, but TSA insisted that Secure Flight was genuinely nicer, not just nicer in name. According to TSA’s final order on its testing of Secure Flight:
