Privacy Act of 1974; Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection-009 Electronic System for Travel Authorization System of Records

In accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposes to update and reissue the DHS system of records titled, "DHS/U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)-009 Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) System of Records." This system of records allows DHS/CBP to collect and maintain records on nonimmigrant aliens seeking to travel to the United States under the Visa Waiver Program and other persons, including U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, whose names are provided to DHS as part of a nonimmigrant alien's ESTA application or Form I-94W. The system is used to determine whether an applicant is eligible to travel to and enter the United States under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) by vetting his or her ESTA application information or Form I-94W information against selected security and law enforcement databases at DHS, including TECS (not an acronym) and the Automated Targeting System (ATS). In addition, ATS retains a copy of ESTA application and Form I- 94W data to identify individuals from Visa Waiver Program countries who may pose a security risk to the United States. The ATS maintains copies of key elements of certain databases in order to minimize the impact of processing searches on the operational systems and to act as a backup for certain operational systems. DHS may also vet ESTA application information against security and law enforcement databases at other federal agencies to enhance DHS's ability to determine whether the applicant poses a security risk to the United States and is eligible to travel to and enter the United States under the VWP. The results of this vetting may inform DHS's assessment of whether the applicant's travel poses a law enforcement or security risk and whether the application should be approved. DHS/CBP is updating this system of records notice, last published on June 17, 2016, to clarify the category of individuals, expand a routine use, and expand the record source categories to include information collected from publicly available sources, such as social media.