The U.S. government and commercial airline companies want to shift the focus of airport security screening from finding harmful objects to identifying dangerous passengers.

The switch would mean delving into the personal information of flyers, and that approach has some privacy experts concerned.

Information that the government would use to vet passengers would include data that individuals have volunteered through trusted traveler programs. But some of the information would come from the Department of Homeland Security, which has agreed to edit out some of the information it has, such as meal preferences.

Civil liberties organizations and some European regulators have raised concerns about the U.S. using a “passenger differentiation” system to determine threats.

Peter Schaar, Germany’s federal commissioner for data protection and freedom of information, has said the new system should meet three criteria: that it’s proven to work in finding terrorists; that it can work without violating privacy rights; and that it avoids negative side effects, like discrimination.

Schaar told The New York Times that he questioned whether the U.S. plan, as currently developed, would “meet at least one of those” criteria.

The government also wants to expand the use of “behavior detection officers,” a system used in Israel that calls for airline passengers to be questioned for the purpose of detecting telltale behavior. The General Accountability Office has voiced opposition, however, claiming that the technique hasn’t been scientifically validated.

“The notion that the government is in any position to judge who is trusted and who is risky is very problematic,” Jay Stanley, an American Civil Liberties Union senior policy analyst, told the Times. “Any attempt to predict who is likely to engage in that type of thing is inevitably going to sweep up a vast number of innocent people.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff, Danny Biederman

To Learn More:

Airport Screening Concerns Civil Liberties Groups (by Susan Stellin, New York Times)

TSA Accused of Anti-Black and Hispanic Discrimination (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

16 Terror Suspects Slipped Through Airport Security in U.S. (by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov)

5 Suggestions for Upgrading Airport Security: Clifford D. May (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)