JetBlue Gave Passenger Info to Contractor
Fri Sep 19, 2:42 PM ET
By BRAD FOSS, AP Business Writer
NEW YORK - Violating its own privacy policy, JetBlue Airways gave
5 million passenger itineraries to a Defense Department contractor that
used the information as part of a study seeking ways to identify "high
risk" airline customers.
The study, produced by Torch Concepts of
Huntsville, Ala., was titled "Homeland
Security: Airline Passenger Risk
Assessment" and was intended to be a
proof-of-concept analysis for a project on
military base security.
"This was a mistake on our part," JetBlue
chief executive David Neeleman said in an
apologetic e-mail sent to angry customers.
Neeleman insisted the data JetBlue provided was not shared with any
government agency and that Torch has since destroyed the passenger
records. New York-based JetBlue said it has taken steps so the
situation will not happen again.
Details of the study and JetBlue's involvement were reported Thursday by
Wired.com, which credited privacy activist Bill Scannell for bringing
attention to the issue on his Web site, Don't Spy On.Us.
Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information
Center in Washington, said that by violating its privacy policy, JetBlue
could be sued for "deceptive trade practices."
Rotenberg said his organization was contemplating filing a complaint
with the Federal Trade Commission.
JetBlue "really should have known better," said Richard M. Smith, an
Internet security and privacy consultant based in Cambridge, Mass.
Smith said the content of the study raises serious questions about
whether it was really aimed at military base security.
"It's basically a prototype for CAPPS II," Smith said, referring to the
nationwide computer system being developed by the Transportation
Security Administration. The Computer Assisted Passenger
Prescreening System, ordered by Congress after the Sept. 11 attacks,
will check such things as credit reports and consumer transactions and
compare passenger names with those on government watch lists.
The TSA, the federal agency in charge of airline and airport security, said
Friday it was not involved in the study.
Torch contacted the TSA last summer for airline industry contacts and
the agency complied with the request, but "that was the extent of our
involvement," TSA spokesman Nico Melendez said.
The Torch study analyzed the records JetBlue provided in September
2002, as well as other demographic data collected about the
passengers, including Social Security (news - web sites) numbers and
information about their finances and families.
The apparent goal of the study, which was presented at a technology
conference in February, was to determine the usefulness of combining
passengers' travel and personal information in order to create a profiling
system that would make air travel more safe.
One conclusion of the study was that "data elements have been
identified which best distinguish normal JetBlue passengers from past
terrorists."
Neeleman's e-mail said Torch "developed this information into a
presentation, without JetBlue's knowledge, for a Department of
Homeland Security symposium" and that he was "deeply dismayed to
learn of it."
Neeleman said JetBlue provided passengers' names, addresses and
phone numbers to Torch after an "exceptional request from the
Department of Defense (news - web sites) to assist their contractor,
Torch Concepts, with a project regarding military base security."
Torch referred calls to its attorney, Richard Marsden, who did not
immediately return a call seeking comment.
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On the Net:
www.jetblue.com
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