In formal comments filed with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Monday, the group called the government's Automated Targeting System (ATS) a "massive black box" for secretly profiling citizens in violation of the Privacy Act.

The program will give individuals no right to access the information used for such profiling, nor will it allow them to correct details that are inaccurate, irrelevant or outdated, the group said in its comments. At the same time, the information "will be made readily available to an untold number of federal, state, local and foreign agencies, as well as a wide variety of third parties, including contractors [and] grantees," the statement said.

At deadline, the DHS had not responded to requests for comment.

If the program goes forward, the government needs to ensure that individuals have judicially enforceable rights of access to the data and to correct it if needed, the group said. It also needs to make sure that only information that is needed for the screening process is collected and that use of such information is restricted. Among the 30 organizations that sent the comments were the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the World Privacy Forum.

The ATS is designed to allow U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials to screen inbound and outbound cargo and passengers for terrorist threats. As part of the screening process, the system compares "information obtained from the public with a set series of queries designed to permit targeting of conveyances, goods, cargo or persons to facilitate DHS' border enforcement mission," according to the official DHS description.