The Transportation Security Administration said it will announce in early June the contractor that will run this summer's three-month test of the Registered Traveler initiative. A spokesperson said TSA last week began reviewing "some" capabilities statements submitted by would-be contractors, which were given two weeks to respond to an April 5 solicitation.
TSA's combined synopsis solicitation asked private-sector contractor teams to detail "best terms from a technical, management and past performance standpoint" on their capabilities to handle most aspects of the Registered Traveler pilot. The test will take place in three to five airports with 5,000 to 10,000 enrollees, TSA officials said.
The voluntary program would allow travelers who consent to background checks and security assessments to avoid random secondary screening, which TSA has said happens to 12 percent to 15 percent of passengers and can take three to five minutes. While participants still would be required to wait in line for primary screening at the magnetometer, airports and airlines may be allowed to create dedicated prescreening lines for registered travelers. To authenticate the identity of participants, TSA is contemplating a government-issued card or token that is carried by enrollees and embedded with their biometric data.
Possible private-sector contractors include Electronic Data Systems, IBM, Unisys and CAPPS II's planned corporate partner, Lockheed Martin Management and Data Systems
(BTN, March 29). These or other large IT firms may subcontract to small biometrics specialists, as they have in a handful of similar programs underway in Canada, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and South Korea. Florida-based Sequiam Biometrics and G&T Conveyor Co. last week said they made a joint bid on TSA's program.
While the oldest airport passenger screening system that uses biometrics is run by EDS in Tel Aviv, the latest initiatives are taking place in Frankfurt, Seoul and Tokyo.
Japan Air Lines in January began a six-month trial with about 5,000 loyalty program volunteers on its biometric e-checkin system at Seoul Incheon International Airport. "This is the first time in the world in which an airline will carry out biometric demonstration tests linking an airline passenger system between two countries," the carrier claimed. JAL and All Nippon Airways in January 2003 began testing a biometrics system at Tokyo Narita International Airport. ANA in March concluded three months of tests on boarding passes containing "passenger facial contour information in a two-dimensional barcode format for identification during security checks and boarding."
The system uses facial recognition technology for the checkin process and confirms passenger identities using iris scans with "a harmless infrared beam," according to a JAL statement. "Participants have their facial and iris details recorded in a card they insert in iris-checking machines at security and boarding gates."
ANA noted that, "All data recorded for the purposes of the trial will be kept only until the participating passenger has boarded the aircraft and will not be used for any purpose other than the pursuance of the trial."
Among several providers in the Tokyo and Seoul tests is Tokyo-based Oki Electric Industry, which also is working in Frankfurt with German firm Byometric Systems on airport border checks using an iris-recognition system. Part of the Automated and Biometrics-based Border Checks initiative among 18 European nations, the Frankfurt program requires three seconds for participants "to stand in front of a system that recognizes that individual's iris pattern and confirms his/her identity."
Lufthansa frequent flyers carrying machine-readable passports from E.U. nations and Switzerland are eligible to enroll at one of seven iris-recognition systems installed at the immigration and emigration control gates of the airport. Passport data is scanned and checked against a database, then the iris recognition system identifies the individual's iris to verify a match with the legal passport holder. Full-scale service is expected to follow the test phase, ending in late summer.
"The advantage is that passengers can avoid long lines," according to a statement by the Frankfurt airport. "Data protection plays an important role in this project. Only a few personal data are recorded (name, date of birth, nationality, sex, passport number, passport expiration date), in addition to the digital picture of the iris. This data is kept only in the databank of the Federal Border Police at Frankfurt Airport and not transferred to any databank even operated by other government agencies. The collected data will be deleted immediately if the project is terminated or a participant no longer wishes to participate."
Canada's Border Services and Citizenship and Immigration agencies recently replaced a precursor program that was canceled after Sept. 11, 2001, with CANPASS Air, an iris-recognition system that facilitates "efficient and secure entry into Canada for preapproved, low-risk air travelers" who are Canadian and U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Expected to be "extended to other visa-exempt countries and North American Free Trade Agreement business travelers in the future," the program charges an annual membership fee of C$50 (US$37).
"In just five seconds, the iris image is captured with a black-and-white camera from a comfortable distance, without bright lights or lasers," according to a January statement. "Members receive an encoded identification card to use at CANPASS Air kiosks in Canada's international airports where they insert their card into a slot, provide an iris scan and enter Canada without further interaction with Customs unless selected randomly for inspection."
Implemented at Vancouver International Airport in July 2003, and Halifax International Airport in November 2003, the program this year will be expanded to airports in Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Winnipeg.
Membership in the iris-recognition program at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport last year eclipsed 7,500 after pilot testing finished in October 2002. Known as Privium, the IBM-backed program cuts border passage to between 10 and 15 seconds and allows participants to make use of special fast-track lanes upon departure and arrival. For e119 a year (US$141), Privium also allows members to check in at the premium-class desks of 17 participating international carriers—including U.S. airlines Continental, Delta, United and US Airways—even when traveling in economy.
After the initial iris scan during enrollment, "the iris details are only stored on the chip of the Privium Card and not in a database," according to a Schiphol Group statement. "When you cross the border, the data on the chip is compared with the data of the actual eye. After this, the data is removed from the equipment straight away."
Data would be retained in TSA's U.S. test. although the private contractor or contractors "will have no property rights to this data," which will "belong solely to the government." According to the April 5 solicitation, systems integration responsibilities would include the creation of an Oracle-compatible database and the transmission of traveler data over local-area, wide-area and wireless networks with maximum integration, speed, data security and redundancy.
"The government would conduct security assessments," be responsible for "obtaining sufficient participants" and maintain a database of participant information on its own server equipment, TSA said. Contractors have been asked to offer a mechanism to "turn off" lost or damaged tokens carried by participants.
TSA said it would provide additional criteria and program objectives to suppliers, which would be responsible for program management, including planning and reporting; selecting, installing, operating and removing fingerprint and/or iris scan technologies for identification; gathering biometric information as part of participant enrollment; transferring data to the government and then to the token to be distributed securely to and carried by registered travelers; and cooperating with TSA, airports, air carriers and other third parties, in part, to assess registered travelers at the airport as "go" or "no-go."
"The contractor must coordinate with TSA and supply all necessary personnel, materials, logistics, services and equipment to perform all requirements for and incidental to the performance of the Registered Traveler pilot," according to TSA. It said the test will incorporate surveys of "a representative percentage" of participants, as well as voluntary, anonymous interviews with "key stakeholders" at the test sites.
Questions about the program raised in late 2002 by the U.S. General Accounting Office—the investigative arm of Congress—related to cost, equity, privacy and liability; whether the program enhances security, possibly by freeing up screening resources to focus on higher-risk passengers; what eligibility criteria would be applied to background checks; whether the "hassle factor" really exists and how the airport might be arranged to shorten the participants' wait times
(BTN, March 29).