Thu, Jan 22, 2004
Privacy Group Pushes for Northwest Probe
As ANN previously
reported, Northwest Airlines recently admitted to secretly turning
over up to 11 million passenger records to the US government in
2001. If a civil-liberties group has their way, the carrier should
be held accountable and possibly fined for sharing this sensitive
information.
"Northwest broke a promise to keep customer records private and
should be investigated for deceptive business practices, the
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)," wrote in a filing
with the Department of Transportation.
"We believe that there's a very clear case that disclosure
violated the privacy assurances that Northwest had given to its
passengers on its Web site," said EPIC General Counsel David
Sobel.
Sobel indicated EPIC
would likely file suit later in the week to compel NASA to disclose
more about its research, including whether other airlines were
involved. In its filing, EPIC also asked the Transportation
Department to determine whether Northwest should pay civil fines or
reimburse customers for breaking its privacy promise. The
Transportation Department should also investigate how Northwest
handles passenger data and require it to keep its promises in the
future, EPIC said.
While Northwest admits it secretly gave passenger records to the
NASA as part of an air-security study in December 2001, company
officials say their customers' privacy was never compromised.
"This situation was entirely different as we were providing the
data to a government agency to conduct scientific research related
to aviation security and we were confident that the privacy of the
passengers' information would be maintained," said company
spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch.
Northwest is the third
major U.S. airline to face a backlash for its cooperation with
government efforts to help develop a passenger-screening system to
root out possible hijackers. Delta Air Lines faced a boycott last
spring for its participation in a pilot screening program and
JetBlue Airways Corp.later apologized to customers last fall after
admitting it had given passenger information to a Defense
Department contractor.
Whether on the ground or in the air, it appears big brother is
watching you.
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