Washington ? Anyone who works at an airport or aboard a cruise ship will have his identity checked against government watch lists, just like commercial airline passengers.

The change, included in the intelligence bill passed by Congress this week, means hundreds of thousands of additional names will be compared with those on two lists — one for people suspected of terrorism, the other for people the government says require additional scrutiny for some other reason.

Cruise passengers, but not crews, already are checked against the lists within 15 minutes of a ship’s departure. Once President Bush signs the bill into law, it will require passengers and crews to be checked before the ship sets sail. The procedures must start within six months after the bill becomes law.

Supporters say the changes add another layer of security for the traveling public, but critics of the lists contend they provide greater opportunity for innocent people to be mistakenly branded.

The lists are wrapped in secrecy. The government doesn’t disclose criteria for placing people on them, how many names are listed or any of the identities.

In a number of well-publicized incidents, people with names similar to others on the lists were stopped from boarding planes. One traveler that happened to is Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.

“To expand the use of something that’s already so error-prone is shocking,” said Marcia Hofmann, attorney for the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington-based advocacy group.

There’s no formal procedure for people to correct misinformation that caused their names to be added to the lists. The intelligence bill orders the Homeland Security Department to establish procedures for names to be removed as well as added.

The bill also requires the newly created Director of National Intelligence to set standards for placing people on the list and to report those criteria to Congress.