When the public learned in September that New
York City-based airline JetBlue had shared passenger information
with a defense contractor a year earlier, the outcry led to two
class-action lawsuits and a formal complaint by a privacy watchdog
group. Industry experts say the incident exposed serious flaws in
the use of online travel data. "It seems once the information is in
the hands of the airline, it’s up to them to protect it," said
Marcia Hofmann, staff counsel at the Washington, D.C.-based
Electronic Privacy Information Center, which filed a complaint with
the Federal Trade Commission in September.
JetBlue CEO David Neeleman denied knowledge of the events, which
involved the transfer of five million passenger records to
Huntsville, Ala.-based Torch Concepts, a data-mining/management
firm with which the government had contracted for testing a
terrorist screening program.The carrier provided the information
when the Department of Defense asked JetBlue to assist with a
project on military base security, Neeleman said. EPIC alleged this
action violated JetBlue’s privacy policy, which states the carrier
will not share personal and financial information with third
parties."We realize that we made a mistake," Neeleman wrote in a
letter to the airline’s customers in September. Travel data is not
nearly as well protected as financial or medical data, according to
Edward Hasbrouck, San Francisco-based privacy expert and author of
the travel technology book, The Practical Nomad (Avalon
Travel).Hasbrouck advises asking a lawyer to add privacy clauses to
travel agent or airline contracts limiting disclosure of
information to vendors and specifying terms under which the data
can be used. Others said vendors’ privacy policies are problematic.
"A lot of them are written in legalese," said Jay Ellenby,
president and CEO of Safe Harbors Travel Group Inc., a
Baltimore-based corporate travel management firm. In fact, a
national survey of 1,200 online consumers released this summer by
the Annenberg Center for Public Policy of the University of
Pennsylvania in Philadelphia found more than half of respondents
were confused by online privacy policies. In September, the
Bellevue, Wash.-based Customer Respect Group released a study that
included an analysis of nine airline privacy policies. The report
said those of Continental and US Airways were the hardest to
understand and relied heavily on legal jargon.The bottom line?
"Don’t reveal any information online that you would not reveal over
the phone," warned Thorsten Ganz, vice president of research at
CRG."For travelers, privacy is the big issue on the horizon, and
it’s just waiting for something to bring it out in the open," said
Hasbrouck. "JetBlue is not going to be the end of this." BRUCE
MYINT
When the public learned in September that New York
City-based airline JetBlue had shared passenger information with a
defense contractor a year earlier, the outcry led to two
class-action lawsuits and a formal complaint by a privacy watchdog
group. Industry experts say the incident exposed serious flaws in
the use of online travel data. "It seems once the information is in
the hands of the airline, it’s up to them to protect it," said
Marcia Hofmann, staff counsel at the Washington, D.C.-based
Electronic Privacy Information Center, which filed a complaint with
the Federal Trade Commission in September.
Privacy expert
Edward Hasbrouck
JetBlue CEO David Neeleman denied knowledge of the events, which
involved the transfer of five million passenger records to
Huntsville, Ala.-based Torch Concepts, a data-mining/management
firm with which the government had contracted for testing a
terrorist screening program.The carrier provided the information
when the Department of Defense asked JetBlue to assist with a
project on military base security, Neeleman said. EPIC alleged this
action violated JetBlue’s privacy policy, which states the carrier
will not share personal and financial information with third
parties."We realize that we made a mistake," Neeleman wrote in a
letter to the airline’s customers in September. Travel data is not
nearly as well protected as financial or medical data, according to
Edward Hasbrouck, San Francisco-based privacy expert and author of
the travel technology book, The Practical Nomad (Avalon
Travel).Hasbrouck advises asking a lawyer to add privacy clauses to
travel agent or airline contracts limiting disclosure of
information to vendors and specifying terms under which the data
can be used. Others said vendors’ privacy policies are problematic.
"A lot of them are written in legalese," said Jay Ellenby,
president and CEO of Safe Harbors Travel Group Inc., a
Baltimore-based corporate travel management firm. In fact, a
national survey of 1,200 online consumers released this summer by
the Annenberg Center for Public Policy of the University of
Pennsylvania in Philadelphia found more than half of respondents
were confused by online privacy policies. In September, the
Bellevue, Wash.-based Customer Respect Group released a study that
included an analysis of nine airline privacy policies. The report
said those of Continental and US Airways were the hardest to
understand and relied heavily on legal jargon.The bottom line?
"Don’t reveal any information online that you would not reveal over
the phone," warned Thorsten Ganz, vice president of research at
CRG."For travelers, privacy is the big issue on the horizon, and
it’s just waiting for something to bring it out in the open," said
Hasbrouck. "JetBlue is not going to be the end of this." BRUCE
MYINT