On Monday, 25 August, The Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) advocated a moratorium on the new Border Crossing Information (BCI) system. The association’s call for a delay in implementation was in response to a recent notice that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has begun tracking border crossing information of foreign visitors, and would store that data for 75 years. The data retention period for U.S. citizens is 15 years.

"With the current world average for life expectancy at 66 years, the information retention period by the DHS of foreign travelers would exceed most people's natural lifetimes," said Susan Gurley, the association's Executive Director. "And while ACTE openly supports any program that will guarantee the security and intergrity of U.S. borders, there is additional concern that the DHS Border Crossing Information System may compromise the privacy of national and foreign travelers without any appreciable increase in security."

ACTE’s primary objections relate to the amount of time the data would be stored, how the data would be protected, and moreover that the data would be shared with third parties. Both the 15-year and the 75-year parameters set by the DHS seem arbitrary. In commentary submitted today, Gurley said, “The BCI 15-year data retention policy for U.S. citizens appears not to be justifiable in furthering law enforcement purposes. And, unless the typical foreign visitor was an infant when entering the United States, travel files would be kept active years after the subject would, in all probability, be deceased.”

Of equal concern to the association is that data gathered by the BCI system would be made available to undefined law enforcement agencies. Published reports state the data may even be accessed in court cases and for employment hiring purposes. ACTE’s concern is that DHS has not provided a rationale as to why travelers’ information, absent of any reported unlawful activity, should be shared with potential employers.

ACTE’s leadership has again noted that the DHS has made minimal effort to explain how data generated by the Border Crossing Information system would be stored or destroyed after the 15- and 75-year time retention periods have elapsed.

"With ACTE having so many international members, we want to ensure that DHS has reasonable and justifiable travel data retention timelines for both U.S. and foreign visitors," concluded Gurley.