The US government is to begin testing a Big Brother-style air security system which will track passengers' travel movement and living arrangements.
The system will link every reservation system in the US to government databases to check for suspicious patterns of travel.
Personal information, including addresses, credit card numbers and links to other passengers, will be used to give everybody who buys an airline ticket a threat rating, with those thought to be highest risk singled out for extra checks.
The system would look for situations, such as one man buying tickets for four other men who had shared addresses in the past but asked to sit in different parts of the plane.
The move has been criticised by rights watchdogs, including the American Civil Liberties Union, who accused the government of invading people's privacy in the search for security.
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