-Agam Shah

U.S. Border-Crossing Database Raises Concerns

A plan by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to collect personal information on travelers coming into the country and keep it in a database for 15 years could have huge privacy implications for U.S. residents, one privacy group says.

The (CDT) says the plan raises serious privacy concerns. The proposal represents a "vast scope of data collection," because data wasn't formerly kept for U.S. citizens crossing into the country by land, the CDT says.

In addition, the 15-year retention period for the data is "excessive," wrote Gregory Nojeim, senior counsel at CDT. "It cannot be justified as necessary for determining whether the record subject is admissible, or is dangerous or is the subject of an outstanding criminal warrant," he wrote in comments filed by the CDT.