CBP Holds Second Biometric Border Meeting with Privacy Advocates

The US Customs and Border Protection agency has held another meeting with privacy advocates concerning its Biometric Entry/Exit Program, the organization has announced.

In a statement, the CBP did not name the privacy groups with which it met, explaining only that the meeting was led by CBP Office of Field Operation Deputy Executive Assistant Commissioner John Wagner, with input from CBP Privacy Officer Debra Danisek. The organization emphasized that it has published three Privacy Impact Assessments on its biometric border initiatives, and that “[t]here are several legislative mandates that direct the Department of Homeland Security to record the arrival and departure of non-U.S. citizens by collecting biometrics.”

The CBP held its first meeting with privacy advocates amid its escalating biometric airport screening activities last August. At the time, the organization called it “the first of numerous engagements planned with privacy groups.” In the months between that meeting and this latest, the CBP has expanded biometric border screening to the Las Vegas Airport and trialed a sea port deployment in collaboration with Royal Caribbean Cruises.

The CBP was ordered to expedite the completion of its Biometric Entry/Exit Program in a presidential executive order last March, which also ordered the temporary ban on the entry of Iranian, Libyan, Somalian, Sudanese, Syrian, and Yemeni nationals into the United States.

–

February 6, 2018 – by Alex Perala