Fantastic news: CAPPSII, the automated passenger screening system that the feds were planning as a kind of mini-version of the Total Information Awareness program, has been shelved, pending a review of the privacy implications of the technology.
CAPPS II testing has ceased pending the implementation of a privacy policy, according to officials at the highest levels of the Department of Homeland Security. They've even stopped all internal testing of the system until changes are made to the Federal Register that tell us, the American people, what they're doing and how it will impact our constitutional rights and freedoms.
It's nice to know that there are now people within Homeland Security that have taken the time to read the Bill of Rights. They are going back to square one and are doing now what they should have done before: to see if it's even possible to devise a passenger screening system that will not only work, but not destroy our rights as Americans in the process. Let us hope that Homeland Security's promise of transparency and openness will continue.
