JetBlue gives away data on passengers

Los Angeles Times
September 20, 2003

JetBlue Gives Away Data on Passengers

-- Airline apologizes for sharing itineraries with a Pentagon contractor for
use in security study.

From Associated Press

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." The apparent goal of the report
was to determine whether it was possible to combine travel and personal
information to create a system that would make air travel safer.

The New York-based airline apologized to customers and said it has taken steps
so the situation will not happen again. "This was a mistake on our part," said
JetBlue Chief Executive David Neeleman.

Neeleman insisted the data JetBlue provided was not shared with any government
agency and that Torch has since destroyed the passenger records.

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.

Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information
Center, said that by violating its privacy policy, JetBlue could be sued for
"deceptive trade practices."

Torch said the intent of the study was to guide the Pentagon on a project for
military base security.

But Richard Smith, an Internet privacy consultant, said the study was a
prototype for a system being developed by the Transportation Security
Administration. The system, ordered by Congress after the Sept. 11 attacks,
will check such things as credit reports 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.

# # #

Did they really "give" it away? Some stories used the word "provided".
Nobody has definitively said they were not paid for the data. Will we
ever know? It seems to me that if Trophy, the research company, was
paid for their survey they would have paid for the raw data. Data
which wasn't Jet Blue's to sell.

Sorry, Torch, not Trophy.

But Richard Smith, an Internet privacy consultant, said the study was
a prototype for a system being developed by the Transportation
Security Administration. The system, ordered by Congress after the
Sept. 11 attacks, will check such things as credit reports and compare
passenger names with those on government watch lists.

When is everyone going to realize that our gubbermint, whether
donkeys or elephants, wants to create a super-database on all of us?
The Democrats wanted to create a database of gun owners during
the Clinton reign. Now the Republicans want to create a database
with information on the books we check-out at the library and the
URLs we access. Fairly soon we will see demands for businesses
like Amazon and Barnes & Noble to give the federales the list of
books we have purchased. And for those of you who think that
this is okay, because your activities are politically correct, just think
of what will happen when the federales confuse you with someone
else, similar to identity theft. This is why we had a Constitution.
Note the use of the past tense.


Casey

On Sun, 21 Sep 2003 14:47:27 GMT, "Casey" wrote:

But Richard Smith, an Internet privacy consultant, said the study was
a prototype for a system being developed by the Transportation
Security Administration. The system, ordered by Congress after the
Sept. 11 attacks, will check such things as credit reports and compare
passenger names with those on government watch lists.

When is everyone going to realize that our gubbermint, whether
donkeys or elephants, wants to create a super-database on all of us?
The Democrats wanted to create a database of gun owners during
the Clinton reign. Now the Republicans want to create a database
with information on the books we check-out at the library and the
URLs we access. Fairly soon we will see demands for businesses
like Amazon and Barnes & Noble to give the federales the list of
books we have purchased. And for those of you who think that
this is okay, because your activities are politically correct, just think
of what will happen when the federales confuse you with someone
else, similar to identity theft.

That's exactly what happened in Florida 2000. Katherine Harris
(tfui, tfui, tfui ! -- now a Member of Congress!) ) hired an outfit
called ChoicePoint to vet the voter lists. With the Bushies'
enthusiastic support, they threw out 90,000 voters -- mostly black,
surprise, surprise -- by that exact deviceof disenfranchising eligible
voters whose names, sometimes by a stretch, could be confused with
ineligible ones.

BTW: ChoicePoint is well and flourishing, thank you; due to its close
association with the Administration, it is making big bux. A Google
on "ChoicePoint" tells all. They're probably in bed with Patriot I
and would-be Patriot II. Remember the attempt at Total Awareness
Network? And the other Ashcroft brainwave about recruiting
mail carriers, gas meter readers, etc. to inform? Hitler and
Stalin would have been proud.


This is why we had a Constitution.
Note the use of the past tense.

We still have it, Casey; we need to elect an Administration
that will respect the Constitution, and will proceed expeditiously to
roll back the totalitarian actions of the present one.

Also wouldn't hurt to elect a Congress that has
some cojones.

--

Traveler

In article ,
AquaGuyLA wrote:
....
The New York-based airline apologized to customers and said it has taken steps
so the situation will not happen again. "This was a mistake on our part," said
JetBlue Chief Executive David Neeleman.

Neeleman insisted the data JetBlue provided was not shared with any government
agency and that Torch has since destroyed the passenger records.

I have just two words to say: backup tapes.

The really scary thing about computers is that it is impossible to destroy
data, since even if you remove it from the system, it lives on on backup
tapes. In general, the technology to selectively edit backup media is
non-existent.

Neeleman insisted the data JetBlue provided was not shared with
any government agency and that Torch has since destroyed the
passenger records.

I have just two words to say: backup tapes.

The really scary thing about computers is that it is impossible to
destroy data, since even if you remove it from the system, it lives
on backup tapes. In general, the technology to selectively edit
backup media is non-existent.

Yes, of course. But most Americans do not understand this
distinction, so the gubbermint will get away with their deception.
And even if you erase the tapes, we were told that the NSA can go
back a few (the actual number seems to be classified) generations
to restore erased data.


Casey

Bush: out the door in 2004.