LOS ANGELES, Dec 4: Some time next year the names of airline passengers in the United States will be fed into a mammoth computer network.

Algorithms will be used to sort through personal records, birth certificates, travel patterns, credit history, tax returns, driver’s licences, child support payments, bank accounts, criminal records and charitable donations, all for searching threatening signs.

The computers will assign each traveller a score. The higher the score, the more risk a passenger would pose. Anyone whose score is too high would face lengthy delays while federal authorities investigate, reported Fort Worth Star Telegram on Tuesday.

That system, an expanded version of the existing Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS-II) could be in place by next year, the report said.

Conceivably, working hand in hand with the system would be a new “registered traveller” programme providing passengers with a card that entitles them to expedited airport screening. Travellers would receive a “smart card”, containing their fingerprints or an “iris scan” and a microchip with background information, by filling out an extensive application for government clearance.