Report: Passport snooping likely rampant
WASHINGTON (AP) - July 4, 2008 A report from the department's inspector general released
Thursday said a survey of the records of 150 notable politicians,
athletes and entertainers found that 127 of them, or 85 percent,
had been accessed 4,148 times between September 2002 and March
2008.
Of the 150 files, nine had been viewed more than 101 times,
according to the report. Thirty-three others had been viewed more
than 26 times, and 85 files had been looked at at least once, it
said.
The report did not say if the files had been viewed for
legitimate reasons, but it noted that the number "appears to be
excessive." It added that it could not yet determine if the 85
percent "hit rate" was "inordinately high."
However, officials said the number of times that some files were
viewed was highly suspicious and probably a sign of inappropriate
peeking at the records, which contain names, Social Security
numbers and passport numbers.
They said that an investigation is under way to determine if any
wrongdoing occurred and that any employees found to have violated
privacy policies would be disciplined.
"We are reviewing the circumstances under which people looked
at these records and we will take action," said Michael Kirby, a
senior official with the State Department's Bureau of Consular
Affairs, which handles passports. "If it's inappropriate access,
we will take appropriate measures."
Five contract passport workers have already been fired for their
role in snooping at the passports of presidential candidates John
McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Breaches of their records
became public in March and prompted the investigation.
Shortly afterward, officials told The Associated Press that a
preliminary review had found that State Department workers viewed
passport records for high-profile Americans, including the late
Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith, at least 20 times since January
2007.
Although Thursday's report does not conclude that any files had
been improperly viewed or any laws broken, it said investigators
found numerous problems in the system that is supposed to protect
the confidentiality of passport records.
The inspector general "found many control weaknesses, including
a general lack of policies, procedures, guidance and training
relating to the prevention and detection of unauthorized access to
passport and applicant information and the subsequent response and
disciplinary processes when a potential unauthorized access is
substantiated," it said.
Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, called the report "deeply disturbing" and urged
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to ensure that the deficiencies
are corrected.
"This is unacceptable," Biden said in a statement. "The
report makes it clear that the private information of over 100
million Americans is vulnerable to unauthorized access. I urge
Secretary Rice to act promptly on the inspector general's
recommendations and correct these systemwide failures."
The report calls for 22 specific actions to improve safeguards.
All but three have been accepted, including random audits of all
passport files, boosting the number of full-time passport record
monitors from two to eight, cutting by half the number of people
authorized to view the records and improving privacy training for
employees.
The department has also made substantial additions to its list
of "flagged files," or files of people that get extra protection
because of their notoriety. That list had in the past included as
many as 500 names, but at the time of the March breaches contained
only 38. It now has more than 1,000 names, officials said.
The heavily redacted 104-page report does not name the people
included on the list of 150 notables whose records were selected
for the survey.
However, it said the investigators drew people "whose
occupations or achievements made them newsworthy." Those included
politicians; movie, television, and media personalities; musicians;
athletes and people in the news.
The names also included celebrities who appeared on Google's
2007 and 2006 lists of most searched names, lists of the top 100
celebrities and 400 richest Americans published by Forbes Magazine,
10 Most Powerful American Women as named by MSN Encarta and Sports
Illustrated's "The Fortunate 50" highest paid athletes in 2007,
the report says.
The State Department maintains passport records for about 127
million Americans.