People volunteer most of the data as part of a commercial transaction.

Connecting the various databases together is pretty simple. As for general suspicion and probable cause...thats pretty tough to come to a conclusion about those items without a review of at least some of the data being collected.

For example, there's a certain level of suspicion associated with buying a last-minute, one-way ticket in cash. That suspicion could be reduced if the data shows that this person is a frequent traveler and actually missed a prior flight...so no need to bother with this guy. As for linking the customs data in (as described by the Wash post)..well thats their data already. There should be no reasonable expectation of privacy at a border crossing. You have to stand in line and present papers to a gov't official. Hard to keep that secret from the gov't :-)

Should they collect and store all this info together? Tough question. My leaning is generally to answer no to this question. I don't think they needs as much as they are collecting to get the job done effectively. Problem is, though, with all the info available so readily...how does the public go about limiting what is collected?

There are also some legal issues with the 74 Privacy Act for sure. And the further we get into the information age, the harder the answer becomes. Web 2.0 is going to create alot of the same issues as internet providers collect and store user data to "better personalize the experience". Keeping that away from the government will be harder and harder to do.

Unfortunately, I don't think kicking the current folks out is going to do anything to this program. HHS [link|http://thehill.com/the-executive/privacy-groups-balk-at-tracking-travelers-personal-info-2006-05-11.html|proposed similar tracking] as a response to the SARS outbreak. With all this pandemic talk over the past several years, even if DHS doesn't want it anymore, somebody else will come up with a reason to track it.

I guess the general point is that we've slid down that slope already, unfortunate as that may be.