AI Assistant for Airport Security Screening Decisions

Safety & Security

What it collects

Operational data

Anonymized data

Staff queries about specific items (e.g. 'Is a lithium battery over 100Wh permitted in carry-on?') entered into the CATSA Assist application at screening checkpoints. The register confirms no personal information about travellers is involved.

CATSA Assist Enhancements — AI Register Entry

Run by: Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA)
Where: No fixed location
Kept: Not stated by the Helpful Places.
Shared with: Accountable organization
Your copy: You cannot see the data it holds about you. What you can do

What it is for

Safety & Security

This AI tool helps Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) employees and screening officers at airport checkpoints quickly look up whether a specific item is permitted through security. It uses natural language processing and retrieval-augmented generation so staff can ask questions in plain language and receive relevant guidance from CATSA's policies. The system is currently under development and does not process personal information about travellers. Staff are informed that AI is used.

What it collects and what happens to it

Data taken in

Operational data

Anonymized data

Staff queries about specific items (e.g. 'Is a lithium battery over 100Wh permitted in carry-on?') entered into the CATSA Assist application at screening checkpoints. The register confirms no personal information about travellers is involved.

CATSA Assist Enhancements — AI Register Entry

Processing

Language Models

The system leverages natural language processing combined with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), built from open-source components, to answer staff queries about item permissibility using CATSA's policy corpus as its knowledge base.

CATSA Assist Enhancements — AI Register Entry

Search & Retrieval

Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is used to pull relevant segments from CATSA's security policy documents in response to a staff query, grounding the language model's answer in authoritative source material.

CATSA Assist Enhancements — AI Register Entry

What it does

Understanding (Semantic AI)

Human decides

The system uses natural language processing to understand staff queries about items submitted at security checkpoints, matching those queries to relevant policy guidance retrieved from CATSA's knowledge base.

CATSA Assist Enhancements — AI Register Entry

Deciding (Analytical AI)

Human decides

The system classifies whether a described item is permitted, prohibited, or subject to conditions, providing a recommendation that screening officers use to inform their decision. Final permissibility decisions remain with the human officer.

CATSA Assist Enhancements — AI Register Entry

Outputs

A recommendation or prediction

Anonymized data

The system returns guidance on whether a queried item is permitted, prohibited, or subject to conditions at a security checkpoint, drawn from CATSA's policy knowledge base. The output is advisory — a human screening officer makes the final determination.

CATSA Assist Enhancements — AI Register Entry

Run by

Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA)

CATSA is the federal agency responsible for airport security screening in Canada. It is developing and deploying the CATSA Assist Enhancements AI system for use by its employees and screening personnel.

CATSA Assist Enhancements — AI Register Entry

Built by

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

Kept for

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

Shared with

Not available to me

The system does not process or produce personal information about travellers. No individual data is produced that would be accessible to members of the public.

CATSA Assist Enhancements — AI Register Entry

Available to the accountable organization

Query logs and system interaction data generated by CATSA Assist would be available to CATSA for monitoring system performance, quality assurance, and policy updates. No personal traveller data is involved.

CATSA Assist Enhancements — AI Register Entry

Stored

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

How to read the colours

Can it identify you?

Anonymized data: Data about people with the link to who is broken. Stripped of identifiers, blurred, aggregated, or noised so this system can’t reasonably tie a record back to an individual.
Pseudonymous data: Each person’s data is tied to a token (hash, ID, template) that lets this system recognise the same person across events, but the token itself doesn’t reveal a name. Reidentification is possible with extra information.
Identifiable data: The data either contains a direct identifier (name, address, account name, recognisable face or voice, plate number) or carries a token this system uses to look up legal identity during processing.

Who completes the loop?

Human decides: This mode suggests; a person decides what to do next. The AI is always advisory — a human is in the loop on every decision. Example: a triage tool ranks cases for a clinician who chooses which to see first.
Human executes: This mode decides; a person carries out the result. Example: an optimizer plans the day’s trash-collection routes, and drivers run them.
Autonomous: This mode decides and acts on its own. No person reviews each decision or carries out the resulting action.

Definitions from the DTPR standard. Amber is about your data, violet about who decides. The fuller the shape and the deeper the colour, the more identifying the data or the less a person is involved.

What you can do

Ask about this system

Questions go to the Helpful Places, not the vendor.

Your rights

Right to Be Informed of AI UseCATSA has confirmed that AI use is disclosed to users of the system. Screening personnel who use CATSA Assist are informed that the guidance they receive is AI-generated.
Right to Algorithmic TransparencyThe system is listed on the Government of Canada's public AI register, which provides high-level information about its purpose, capabilities, and data handling. Staff users can consult the register entry for general information about how the system works.

Risks and safeguards

Reputational harmThe system may return incorrect or outdated guidance about item permissibility, potentially leading to inconsistent or incorrect screening outcomes and undermining trust in CATSA's screening process.Safeguard: The system is advisory only — trained human screening officers make all final decisions. The use of retrieval-augmented generation grounds responses in CATSA's authoritative policy corpus, reducing hallucination risk. The system remains in development, allowing for testing and validation before full deployment.