Security Programs
Latest News
- DHS Achieves Major Aviation Security Milestone One Month Ahead of Schedule; DHS now vetting 100 percent of passengers on flights within or bound for U.S. against watchlists. Read the Press Release.
- Airlines and Travel Agencies - Use the Secure Flight Communications Toolkit to communicate the changes and benefits that Secure Flight will bring for your customers
- Find answers to your questions regarding Secure Flight on the FAQs page
- Think you were misidentified as a match to the watch list? Visit the DHS Travel Redress Inquiry Program (DHS TRIP) and help prevent future difficulties today.
Secure Flight Overview
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Secure Flight is a behind-the-scenes program that enhances the security of domestic and international commercial air travel through the use of improved watch list matching. By collecting additional passenger data, it improves the travel experience for all airline passengers, including those who have been misidentified in the past.
When passengers travel, they are required to provide the following Secure Flight Passenger Data (SFPD) to the airline:
- Name (as it appears on government-issued ID the passenger plans to use when traveling)
- Date of Birth
- Gender
- Redress Number (if applicable)
The airline submits this information to Secure Flight, which uses it to perform watch list matching. This serves to prevent individuals on the No Fly List from boarding an aircraft and to identify individuals on the Selectee List for enhanced screening. After matching passenger information against government watch lists, Secure Flight transmits the matching results back to airlines so they can issue passenger boarding passes.
Dates of Implementation
Airlines must request and collect full name, date of birth, and gender, and Redress Number (if available) as of August 15, 2009 for domestic flights and as of October 31, 2009 for international flights. However, Secure Flight will be phased-in with each airline. Passengers should not be concerned if particular airlines do not ask them to provide the additional information right away; it should not impact their travel.
Top Secure Flight Questions
Q. What is Secure Flight and what does it do?
A. Secure Flight is a behind-the-scenes program that streamlines the watch list matching process. It provides enhanced watch list matching capabilities to identify individuals that may pose a threat to aviation. The Secure Flight Final Rule shifted pre-departure watch list matching responsibilities from individual airlines for domestic flights and from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for international flights to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Secure Flight program.
As of November 2010, 100 percent of covered domestic and foreign airlines with flights into, out of, and within the United States are deployed to Secure Flight – fulfilling a key 9/11 Commission recommendation a month ahead of schedule. Secure Flight continues to work with the airline industry to deploy to airlines implementing new service or adding additional flights covered by the Secure Flight Final Rule.
Q. Why do I need to provide this information?
A. TSA determined that mandating the provision of the additional data elements of date of birth and gender would greatly reduce the number of passengers misidentified as a match to the watch list. It is to the passenger's advantage to provide the required data elements as doing so may prevent delays or inconveniences at the airport, particularly for those individuals who have been misidentified in the past.
All passengers who make flight reservations into, out of, or within the U.S. must provide his/her full name, date of birth, and gender. If a passenger chooses not provide this data, TSA will not be able to clear the airline to provide a boarding pass and the passenger may need to take additional steps at the airport ticket counter to verify his/her identity. By providing the additional information when booking airline travel, passengers can expedite the process. More than 99 percent of passengers who provide Secure Flight Passenger Data (SFPD) are cleared by Secure Flight in advance of airport arrival and do not experience delays in obtaining boarding passes.
Q. How do I know if I am on the No Fly List?
A. If a passenger successfully obtains a boarding pass, his/her name is not on the No Fly List. If a passenger feels they have been misidentified, redress is an opportunity to seek resolution and avoid future delays. Any passenger who believes he/she has been delayed or denied boarding or delayed or denied entry into the United States at a port of entry may seek redress through the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (TRIP) at www.dhs.gov/trip. DHS TRIP provides a single portal for travelers to seek redress for adverse screening experiences and to resolve possible watch list misidentification issues.
Q. What information is collected by Secure Flight?
A. TSA collects the following information, known as Secure Flight Passenger Data (SFPD), for flights into, out of, within, and over the United States:
- Name (as it appears on the government-issued ID the passenger plans to use when traveling)
- Date of birth
- Gender
- Redress Number (if available)
Program Background
Secure Flight is a program developed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in response to a key 9/11 Commission recommendation: uniform watch list matching by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The mission of the Secure Flight program is to enhance the security of domestic and foreign commercial air travel through the use of improved watch list matching.
Prior to the implementation of Secure Flight, airlines were responsible for matching passenger information against the watch lists. By transferring these watch list matching responsibilities from the airlines to TSA, Secure Flight:
- Decreases the chance for compromised watch list data by limiting its distribution
- Provides earlier identification of potential matches, allowing for expedited notification of law enforcement and threat management
- Provides a fair, equitable, and consistent matching process across all airlines
- Offers consistent application of an integrated redress process for misidentified individuals through the Department of Homeland Security's Travel Redress Inquiry Program (DHS TRIP)
As of November 2010, Secure Flight conducts uniform prescreening of passenger information against federal government watch lists for all covered U.S. and foreign airline flights into, out of, and within the United States – fulfilling a key 9/11 Commission recommendation a month ahead of schedule. This also includes point-to-point international flights operated by U.S. airlines. Secure Flight also performs watch list matching for flights which overfly, but do not land in, the continental United States (i.e., lower 48 contiguous states, excluding Alaska and Hawaii).
How It Works
Under the Secure Flight program, passengers making a reservation are required to provide their full name (as it appears on the government-issued identification they plan to use when traveling), date of birth, and gender.
TSA matches this information against government watch lists to:
- Identify individuals on the No Fly List and prevent them from boarding an aircraft
- Identify individuals on the Selectee List for enhanced screening
- Prevents future misidentifications through the integration of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Redress process
- Facilitate passenger air travel
- Protect individuals' privacy
After matching passenger information against government watch lists, Secure Flight transmits the matching results back to airlines so they can issue passenger boarding passes.
Privacy
Ensuring the privacy of individuals is a cornerstone of Secure Flight. TSA has developed a comprehensive privacy plan to incorporate privacy laws and practices into all areas of Secure Flight. The program has worked extensively to maximize individual privacy.
In addition to assuring compliance and re-enforcing its commitment to protecting privacy, Secure Flight has created an environment dedicated to guaranteeing its privacy mission that is front and center every day.
The Secure Flight Privacy Program includes:
- Foundational Privacy Principles: Tenets that underpin and guide all Secure Flight behaviors, requirements, systems, and processes
- Privacy Organization: Dedicated Privacy Officer and privacy staff, processes, and procedures responsible for privacy compliance, for assessing Secure Flight privacy risks, and for developing and implementing plans to effectively manage those risks
- Privacy Policy: Secure Flight privacy policies, procedures, standards, and rules of behavior as well as ways to adhere to them
- Systems Development and Security: Administrative, physical, and technical safeguards that manage privacy risks throughout the lifecycle of the Secure Flight system
- Awareness and Training: Programs to make the Secure Flight organization and its stakeholders, including the traveling public and the airlines, aware of Secure Flight's privacy posture and practices
- Monitoring and Compliance: Programs to monitor adherence to statutory and regulatory privacy requirements and Secure Flight's privacy principles, policies, procedures, standards and rules of behavior
- Redress and Response: Systems and processes to respond, if needed, to privacy inquiries, issues, and incidents
- Privacy Risk Management: Tools and techniques to support Secure Flight privacy risk management
Personal Information
TSA collects the minimum amount of personal information necessary to conduct effective watch list matching. Furthermore, personal data is collected, used, distributed, stored, and disposed of according to stringent guidelines and all applicable privacy laws and regulations. Secure Flight published a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) in conjunction with the Secure Flight Final Rule and published a System of Records Notice (SORN) in the Federal Register to provide detailed information about the program's privacy approach.
TSA does not collect or use commercial data to conduct Secure Flight watch list matching.
TSA's Secure Flight Exemption Rule was published November 9, 2007, in the Federal Register. The Exemption Rule provides the public notice of TSA's decision to exempt the Secure Flight Records system (DHS/TSA 019) from several provisions of the Privacy Act of 1974, as well as the basis for the claimed exemptions. Additionally, the Exemption Rule provides a comprehensive response to public comments received for the Secure Flight Notice of Proposed Rule Making for Privacy Act Exemptions.
What Laws Require Secure Flight?
Section 4012(a) of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA) required the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to assume from airlines the comparison of passenger information to the No Fly and Selectee Lists and to use all appropriate records in the consolidated and integrated watch list that the federal government maintains. The final report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (9/11 Commission Report) recommended that the watch list matching function "should be performed by TSA and it should utilize the larger set of watch lists maintained by the federal government."
Secure Flight published its Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) in August 2007. From August 2007 through November 21, 2007, TSA accepted comments from the public and industry on the NPRM. TSA considered these comments while modifying the Final Rule. The Secure Flight Final Rule was published on October 28, 2008, and went into effect on December 29, 2008.