Question: Will the Safe Travels database be deleted? They have personal information about millions of airline passengers in there.
Answer: Yes, eventually. “All of the information stored in the Hawaii Safe Travels digital platform is subject to the state’s records retention schedule, which is three years after the end of the program. When the Safe Travels platform goes off-line on March 26, the existing data will be secured, encrypted and stored off-line in a safe manner. After three years, the data will be destroyed. We are planning to make a version of the information, with all personal information removed, available for research purposes,” Doug Murdock, the state’s chief information officer, said Friday in an email.
We followed up with the state’s Office of Enterprise Technology Services asking about the potential research but did not hear back by deadline.
More than 11 million arriving passengers — visitors and returning Hawaii residents — have registered with Safe Travels since the COVID-19 screening program began.
All domestic airline passengers ages 18 and older arriving through March 25 must register with Safe Travels and provide their email address, name, date of birth, phone number, address, government ID, preferred language, whether they are a resident or visitor, as well as details about their flight and where they are staying in Hawaii. If they are seeking an exception to quarantine, they must also upload their vaccine card, negative test result or proof of COVID-19 recovery, depending on the exception sought. Safe Travels also asks optional questions about the traveler’s gender, race, country of citizenship and occupation.
As your question indicates, personally identifying information like this is highly sought by identity thieves. You are one of several readers who have asked how information collected by the state would be dealt with after the Safe Travels program expires. As Murdock said, safeguards will be in place, and later the data will be destroyed.
Q: When will families be allowed to visit prisoners at Halawa? The Arizona prison is already letting in visitors.
A: The date is unspecified but it will be “very soon,” said Toni Schwartz, spokeswoman for Hawaii’s Department of Public Safety.
As your question indicates, the Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz., which holds about 1,110 Hawaii inmates under a contract with the state, resumed in-person, noncontact visitation Feb. 28. That’s not the case for inmates held in Hawaii, including at Halawa Correctional Center, where in-person family visits have been suspended since March 13, 2020, according to the DPS website.
Here’s Schwartz’s full response: “In-person, non-contact visits have resumed at the Saguaro Correctional Center, our contract facility in Arizona. Now that Hawaii is on the back end of the most recent statewide outbreak, the Department of Public Safety is working on resuming in-person, no-contact visitation for all Hawaii facilities very soon. As part of the planning process to reopen visitations, we will follow our Pandemic Response Plan in order ensure the health and safety of our staff, inmates, and visitors. Once we have all the logistics worked out and a date set, we will be sure to announce it to the public.”
Mahalo
Believe there will be a silver lining when things go wrong. Yvonne is that special person who turned around a frustrating, exasperating situation with her exceptional customer service. She listened and acknowledged the miscommunication I had received from my home security alarm company, then proceeded to solve my problem with aloha. Yvonne is definitely an asset to her employer. — Grateful customer
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
