'Millions of American and international travellers coming into and out of the US over the past four years have each been assigned a risk assessment score designed to pinpoint potential terrorists or criminals, the US government has revealed.
'The travellers, including all British passengers to the US, have been given a security profile that draws on information from a number of key American departments as well as intelligence held on them by the airlines and co-operating governments. The profiles are held in a central computer in Washington for 40 years.
'The details of the system, known as the Automated Targeting System or ATS, were put on the federal noticeboard last month but attracted little attention. The system builds on measures to target suspected terrorists first developed in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
'The process of garnering intelligence from many different sources and then processing it to produce a profile or score indicating risk levels was initially applied to cargo. But over recent years it has been widened to include individual air passengers as well as flight crews, without any public notification and without the knowledge of data protection groups.' (Guardian article).
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