Jul 3, 2008 2:50 pm US/Central
Report: Passport Snopping Likely Rampant
WASHINGTON (AP) ―
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A report from the department's inspector general to be released Thursday said that a survey of the records of 150 notable politicians, athletes and entertainers found that 127 of them had been accessed, some of them multiple times.
AP
An internal State Department investigative report suggests that employees may have been snooping on the passport records of celebrities far more than previously disclosed, and urges new steps to secure the files.
A report from the department's inspector general to be released Thursday said that a survey of the records of 150 notable politicians, athletes and entertainers found that 127 of them had been accessed, some of them multiple times. The report did not say whether they had been viewed for legitimate reasons, but noted that the number seems high.
"Although an 85 percent hit rate appears to be excessive, the department currently lacks criteria to determine whether this is actually an inordinately high rate," it said.
Nonetheless, the report said investigators found numerous problems in the system that is supposed to protect the confidentiality of passport records and called for 22 specific actions to improve it.
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.
The probe, which looked at records accessed between September 2002 and March 2008, began earlier this year after it was discovered that the files of leading presidential candidates had been improperly viewed by contract workers.
The heavily redacted report does not name the names of people whose records were viewed, but says the investigators drew on a list of 150 people "whose occupations or achievements made them newsworthy," it said. 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.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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