The U.S. government is collecting electronic data on the travel habits of millions of Americans who take trips overseas, The Washington Post reported Saturday.
Officials say the records, which are analyzed by the department's Automated Targeting System, help border officials distinguish potential terrorists from innocent people entering the country, the paper said.
Shown in documents obtained by a civil liberties group, the government started since the mid-1990s to compile data including travel companions, the personal items, and even the books travelers carried.
It is part of the Department of Homeland Security's effort to assess the security threat posed by all travelers entering the country, according to the paper.
The collection of data has been greatly expanded and automated since 2002, and the government is monitoring the personal habits of travelers more closely, said officials cited by the paper.
Officials defended the retention of highly personal data on travelers not involved in or linked to any violations of the law.
But civil liberties contended that the data collection effort violates the Privacy Act, which bars the gathering of data related to Americans' exercise of their First Amendment rights, according to the report.
The activists also blamed the government for not creating an effective mechanism for reviewing the data and correcting any errors, the report said.
Source: Xinhua
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