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Privacy Impact Assessment Update

CBP, APIS PIA Update

Page 3

access to that information to the Head of each other agency that has counterterrorism functions.

The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA) of 2004 (Pub. L. No. 108-458),

as amended, places an obligation on U.S. government agencies to share terrorism information

with the Intelligence Community (IC), including NCTC. In certain instances, DHS shares the

entire dataset with an IC member in order to support the counterterrorism activities of the IC and

to identify terrorism information within DHS data.

In 2011, DHS began sharing the entire APIS dataset with NCTC under a Memorandum

of Understanding (MOU). In 2013, DHS and NCTC entered into a new Memorandum of

Agreement (MOA) that supersedes the 2011 MOU and documents an expansion of routine

sharing with NCTC. The MOA permits NCTC to use APIS information to facilitate NCTC’s

counterterrorism efforts. This information sharing also aligns with DHS’s mission to prevent

and deter terrorist attacks. The MOA includes a number of safeguards to ensure the data is only

used for the purposes explicitly permitted under the MOA, this PIA, and the DHS/CBP-005

Advance Passenger Information System of Records Notice (SORN), 73 FR 68435, November

18, 2008.

The MOA also limits the amount of time the information is maintained at NCTC,

ensures proper information technology security is in place during and after transmission of the

APIS information to NCTC, requires training for staff accessing APIS, and provides for routine

reporting and auditing of NCTC’s use of the information.

Reason for the PIA Update

CBP is updating the existing DHS/CBP/PIA-001 APIS

to provide notice of an expansion

in NCTC’s ‘temporary retention’ of APIS information.

Under Executive Order 12333, United

States Intelligence Activities (December 8, 1981), as amended, IC elements are required to have

guidelines approved by the Attorney General of the United States for the collection, retention,

and dissemination of information concerning United States Persons (U.S. Persons).

These

guidelines outline temporary retention periods during which an IC element must determine

whether it can continue to retain U.S. Person information, consistent with Executive Order 12333

and the purposes and procedures outlined in its guidelines.

Available at:

The existing DHS/CBP/PIA – 001 APIS was first published on March 21, 2005, and updated subsequently on

August 9, 2007, September 11, 2007, November 18, 2008, February 19, 2009, and June 23, 2011.

The purpose of this ‘temporary retention’ period is to allow NCTC sufficient time to determine whether the U.S.

Person information it receives from other federal departments and agencies is terrorism information.

NCTC’s Guidelines use the definition of U.S. Person provided in Executive Order 12333, which states that a U.S.

Person is “a United States citizen, an alien known by the intelligence element concerned to be a permanent resident

alien, an unincorporated association substantially composed of United States citizens or permanent resident aliens,

or a corporation incorporated in the United States, except for a corporation directed and controlled by a foreign

government or governments.” See Executive Order 12333, Section 3.5(k).

Privacy Impact Assessment Update For The Advance Passenger Information System (Apis) - U.s. Department Of Homeland Security - 2013 Page 3