[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 155 (Monday, August 13, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45255-45257]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-15817]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY


Privacy Office; Published Privacy Impact Assessments on the Web

AGENCY: Privacy Office, Office of the Secretary, Department of Homeland 
Security.

ACTION: Notice of publication of Privacy Impact Assessments.

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SUMMARY: The Privacy Office of the Department of Homeland Security is 
making available fourteen (14) Privacy Impact Assessments on various 
programs and systems in the Department. These assessments were approved 
and published on the Privacy Office's Web site between April 1, 2007 
and June 30, 2007.

DATES: The Privacy Impact Assessments will be available on the DHS Web 
site until October 12, 2007, after which they may be obtained by 
contacting the DHS Privacy Office (contact information below).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Hugo Teufel III, Chief Privacy 
Officer, Department of Homeland Security, Mail Stop 0550, Washington, 
DC 20528, or e-mail: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Between April 1, 2007 and June 30, 2007, the 
Chief Privacy Officer of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) 
approved and published fourteen (14) Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs) 
on the DHS Privacy Office Web site, http://www.dhs.gov/privacy, under 
the link for ``Privacy Impact Assessments.'' Below is a short summary 
of each of those systems, indicating the DHS component responsible for 
the system, and the date on which the PIA was approved. Additional 
information can be found on the Web site or by contacting the Privacy 
Office.

    System: Verification Information System.
    Component: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
    Date of approval: April 2, 2007.
    U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) provides 
immigration

[[Page 45256]]

status verification for benefits determinations and employment 
authorization through the Verification Division of USCIS. Presently, 
two programs exist to implement this mandate: The Systematic Alien 
Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program for government benefits 
and the Employment Eligibility Verification/Basic Pilot Program for 
private employer verification of employment authorization for all newly 
hired employees. The Verification Information System (VIS), a composite 
information system incorporating data from various DHS databases, is 
the underlying information technology that supports these programs. 
USCIS conducted this PIA to describe updates to VIS that will improve 
the ability of USCIS to provide citizenship and immigration status 
information to users of SAVE and Basic Pilot.

    System: Automated Continuing Evaluation System Pilot.
    Component: Management, Office of Security.
    Date of approval: April 9, 2007.
    DHS is working with the Department of Defense to pilot the 
Automated Continuing Evaluation System (ACES). ACES conducts automated 
records checks to identify new issues of security concern for DHS 
personnel and contractors requiring a security clearance. During the 
ACES pilot, DHS will assess the feasibility of using ACES for initial 
and continuing evaluation of DHS security clearance holders. This PIA 
is for the DHS implementation of the ACES Pilot.

    System: 24 x 7 Incident Handling and Response Center.
    Component: National Protection and Programs.
    Date of approval: April 2, 2007.
    The 24 x 7 Incident Handling and Response Center (``24 x 7'') 
focuses on ways to gather cyber information prior to attacks and to use 
that information to prevent attacks, protect computing infrastructure, 
and respond/restore where attacks are successful. 24 x 7 serves as a 
communication hub for the United States Computer Readiness Team (US-
CERT) program, issuing regular security and warning bulletins, serving 
as a gateway for public contribution and outreach, and also serving as 
a ticketing center through which tasks may be delegated out to the 
various US-CERT programs.

    System: Automated Identification Management System.
    Component: US VISIT.
    Date of approval: May 14, 2007.
    In accordance with the guidance issued by the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) implementing the E-Government Act of 2002 to promote 
program transparency and address any privacy concerns, this revision of 
the United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology 
(US-VISIT) Program PIA is prompted by the decommissioning of the 
Automated Identification Management System (AIDMS).

    System: ``Biometrics at Sea'' Mona Passage Proof of Concept Update.
    Component: United States Coast Guard.
    Date of approval: May 15, 2007.
    This is an update to the previous PIA for the U.S. Coast Guard 
(Coast Guard) Biometrics At Sea Mona Passage Proof of Concept, dated 
November 3, 2006. This update describes new means by which the Coast 
Guard will transmit information to the US-VISIT Automated Biometric 
Identification System (IDENT) in connection with the Coast Guard 
Biometrics At Sea Mona Pass Proof of Concept program. With the addition 
of capabilities described in this update, the Coast Guard will be able 
to transmit biometric data obtained from undocumented aliens that the 
Coast Guard interdicts in the Mona Passage directly to US-VISIT via 
secure, encrypted satellite communications for analysis against the 
IDENT database. Biometric information to be searched against will no 
longer be stored on the laptops. If there is a communications failure, 
the Coast Guard may revert back to the ability to search biometric data 
against the distributed IDENT data sets on stand-alone non-networked 
secured laptop computers on board Coast Guard cutters more fully 
described in the November 3, 2006 PIA.

    System: Enumeration Services of the Automated Biometric 
Identification System.
    Component: US VISIT.
    Date of approval: May 25, 2007.
    The Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT) is the 
primary repository of biometric information held by DHS in connection 
with its several and varied missions and functions, including but not 
limited to: The enforcement of civil and criminal laws (including 
immigration laws); investigations, inquiries, and proceedings in 
connection with those missions and functions; and national security and 
intelligence activities. IDENT is a centralized and dynamic DHS-wide 
biometric database. The DHS US-VISIT program is publishing this PIA 
update for the IDENT to describe the changes to IDENT required to 
support enumeration services, a new service offering from IDENT. 
Enumeration services generates a unique personal identifier, known as 
an enumerator, for each individual for whom ten fingerprints and 
minimal biographic data has been collected in IDENT. Within IDENT the 
enumerator will be used to uniquely identify individuals and to link 
and retrieve immigration and border management records with a single 
identifier instead of multiple identifiers. This PIA has been conducted 
because the addition of enumerator services constitutes a significant 
change to IDENT.

    System: USCIS Secure Information Management Service Pilot with 
Inter-country Adoptions.
    Component: United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.
    Date of approval: May 24, 2007.
    United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) prepared 
a PIA for the Secure Information Management Service (SIMS) Pilot. Using 
the inter-country adoption caseload as a ``proof-of-concept'' for SIMS, 
this pilot will: (a) Demonstrate the case processing capability of the 
case management system, (b) verify that an enumerator (unique 
identifier based on biometrics) supports the USCIS person-centric 
business process, and (c) verify that the case management system can be 
used to view digitized files. This PIA covers the initial deployment of 
the SIMS and will be supplemented accordingly as additional USCIS 
applications and system functionalities are added to the SIMS.

    System: Chemical Security Assessment Tool Update.
    Component: National Protection and Programs.
    Date of approval: May 25, 2007.
    This is an update to the previous Chemical Security Assessment Tool 
(CSAT) PIA in order to describe the additional Web site functionality, 
the new eligibility requirements for CSAT users, and the deployment of 
the CSAT Help Desk. CSAT collects personally identifiable information 
from CSAT users and/or CVI Web site users. Further, the CSAT Help Desk 
may collect contact information from both CSAT users requesting basic 
CSAT IT support or from the general public inquiring about the CSAT 
program.

    System: Department of Homeland Security General Contact Lists.
    Component: Department Wide.
    Date of approval: June 15, 2007.
    Many DHS operations and projects collect a minimal amount of 
contact information in order to distribute information and perform 
various other administrative tasks. Department Headquarters has 
conducted this

[[Page 45257]]

privacy impact assessment because contact lists contain personally 
identifiable information. Programs that follow the policies and 
procedures outlined in this PIA are noted in the Appendix.

    System: Protected Critical Infrastructure Information Management 
System.
    Component: National Protection and Programs.
    Date of approval: June 20, 2007.
    The Protected Critical Infrastructure Information (PCII) Program, 
part of the DHS Infrastructure Partnerships Division, is an 
information-protection tool that facilitates the sharing of PCII 
between the government and the private sector. The Protected Critical 
Infrastructure Information Management System is an Information 
Technology system and the means by which PCII submissions from the 
private sector will be cataloged. The PCII Program conducted this PIA 
because PII from the submitting individuals is collected for contact 
purposes.

    System: USCIS Enterprise Service Bus.
    Component: US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
    Date of approval: June 22, 2007.
    The USCIS Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) was developed by the USCIS 
Office of Information Technology (OIT) to facilitate information 
sharing and integration between USCIS systems, and across DHS 
components and other agencies, such as the Department of State. The ESB 
is a set of commercial off-the-shelf software that provides a 
standardized infrastructure to connect to multiple systems and 
services. This is a new infrastructure component within USCIS that will 
be incrementally enhanced to provide support for multiple service 
interfaces. This PIA will be updated to reflect those material changes.

    System: USCIS Person Centric Query Service.
    Component: US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
    Date of approval: June 22, 2007.
    The Rice/Chertoff Initiative is an information sharing initiative 
between the Department of Homeland Security, USCIS and Department of 
State (DOS), Bureau of Counselor Affairs to share immigration and visa 
data between agencies. To support this information sharing initiative, 
the USCIS OIT developed a new service called the Person Centric Query 
(PCQ) Service that will improve the existing business information 
sharing capabilities between DHS and DOS. The PCQ Service provides 
authorized DHS/DOS users with a consolidated view of all information 
about an individual in selected USCIS and DOS data bases. This new 
service will improve efficiency of user searches, facilitate 
information sharing, increase the quality and accuracy of the 
underlying data, and increase the security of the information being 
shared among systems.

    System: Homeland Security Information Network Communities of 
Interest.
    Component: Operations.
    Date of approval: June 22, 2007.
    The Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN) is designed to 
facilitate the secure integration and interoperability of information 
sharing resources amongst federal, state, local, tribal, private sector 
commercial, and other non-governmental stakeholders involved in 
identifying and preventing terrorism as well as in undertaking incident 
management activities. As part of the information sharing efforts HSIN 
supports, HSIN has established different Communities of Interest within 
the HSIN network.

    System: Central Index System.
    Component: US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
    Date of approval: June 22, 2007.
    The DHS USCIS maintains the Central Index System (CIS), a database 
system originally developed by the legacy Immigration and 
Naturalization Service. CIS contains information on the status of 57 
million applicants/petitioners seeking immigration benefits to include: 
lawful permanent residents, naturalized citizens, U.S. border crossers, 
aliens who illegally entered the U.S., aliens who have been issued 
employment authorization documents, individuals who petitioned for 
benefits on behalf of family members, and other individuals subject to 
the provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act. This PIA 
addresses the current status of CIS, and will be updated accordingly as 
additional USCIS applications and system functionalities are added to 
CIS.

    Dated: August 6, 2007.
Hugo Teufel III,
Chief Privacy Officer.
 [FR Doc. E7-15817 Filed 8-10-07; 8:45 am]
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