Found a page that seems to have more than you ever wanted to know about the passport system. Forget the "gee, what countries has he visited" bullshit, folks...could be much more sinister intentions involved. The MSM is focusing more on the word "passport" and less on the word "FILES".
http://cryptome.org/dos010908.htm Passport books and passport cards, applications for
passport books and passport cards, and applications for additional visa
pages, amendments, extensions, replacements, and/or renewals of
passport books or cards (including all information and materials
submitted as part of or with all such applications);
Applications for registration at American Diplomatic and
Consular Posts as U.S. citizens or for issuance of Cards of Identity
and Registration as U.S. Citizens;
Consular Reports of Birth Abroad of United States
citizens;
Certificates of Witness to Marriage;
Certificates of Loss of United States Nationality;
Oaths of Repatriation;
Consular Certificates of Repatriation;
Reports of Death of an American Citizen Abroad;
Cards of Identity and Registration as U.S. citizens;
Lookout files which identify those persons whose
applications for a consular or related service require other than
routine examination or action; and
Miscellaneous materials, which are documents and/or
records maintained separately, if not in the application, including but
not limited to the following types of documents:
Investigatory reports compiled in connection with granting or
denying passport and related services or prosecuting violations of
passport criminal statutes;
Transcripts and opinions on administrative hearings, appeals
and civil actions in federal courts;
Legal briefs, memoranda, judicial orders and opinions arising
from administrative determinations relating to passports and
citizenship;
Birth and baptismal certificates;
Court orders;
Arrest warrants;
Medical, personal and financial reports;
Affidavits;
Inter-agency and intra-agency memoranda, telegrams, letters,
and other miscellaneous correspondence;
An electronic index of all passport application records
created since 1978, and some passport application records created
between 1962 and 1978;
An electronic index of Department of State Reports of Birth
of American Citizens abroad; and/or
Records of lost and stolen passports.