The new Secure Flight Rule by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) mandates that passengers provide their name as it appears on their passport, date of birth, and gender when making an airline reservation. The required information is known as Secure Flight Passenger Data (SFPD) and is applicable for travel to, via or over-flying the United States. For US carriers; collection of passenger data under the SFPD program will be mandatory from 31 October 2009. More detailed information is available on the TSA websites:
http://www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/layers/secureflight/index.shtm
http://www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/layers/secureflight/travel_agencies.shtm