Passport Anomaly Model
Description
The Passport Anomaly Model addresses challenges stemming from the lack of formal notification regarding updates to passport series, such as issuance of new series or expiration of old ones. By analyzing historical trends, the model evaluates whether a passport exhibits typical or atypical characteristics and alerts officers when further scrutiny may be warranted. This capability enhances the integrity of travel document verification by enabling CBP personnel to conduct thorough and efficient reviews, ensuring security and accuracy in the inspection process.
Detailed example
The model’s outputs are integrated into the Advanced Targeting System (ATS) application, delivering real-time results that assist CBP personnel in detecting passport anomalies and potentially fraudulent documents.
AI / analytics pattern
Classical/Predictive Machine Learning: Models trained on data to make predictions or classifications based on identified patterns or relationships.
Automation level / stage
c) Deployed – The use case is being actively authorized or utilized to support the functions or mission of an agency.
Expected benefit
The model assists CBP personnel in passenger targeting and vetting by analyzing anomalies in Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) and non-ESTA country-specific traveler passports to improve the accuracy of matching and streamlining the screening process by reducing errors and enhancing the identification of high-risk travelers.
Audit / financial statement impact
The AI outputs do not serve as a principal basis for a decision or action concerning a specific individual or entity that has a legal, material, binding, or similarly significant effect on that individual’s or entity’s civil rights, civil liberties or privacy, equal opportunities, or access to or the ability to apply for critical government resources or services. The AI output is an assessment of passport validity in response to an officer's request for passport validation. This result could be related to an inconsistency or abnormality in a passport's pattern. This is a tool available to CBP officers for confirming the validity of a passport. This result is used to notify the CBP officer that a passport may require review, as it may be part of a newly released sequence, may be invalid, or even possibly fraudulent. This is only one piece of information provided to CBP Officers during the normal course of their duties. The officers would use any results provided to research the validity of the passport through other sources.
Controls / human review
ATO: Yes; PIA: https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/privacy_pia_cbp_tsacop_09162014.pdf
Data needed
This model leverages data provided by air carriers within the Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) and Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA).