Northwest gave confidential customer info to govt

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2004 19:29:20 -0700
From: Brett Glass <brett () lariat org>
Subject: Northwest gave confidential customer info to govt

Confidential Passenger Data Used for Air Security Project

By Sara Kehaulani Goo
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 17, 2004; 6:50 PM

Northwest Airlines provided information on millions of passengers for a 
secret U.S. government air security project soon after the Sept. 11th 
terrorist attacks, raising fresh concerns among some privacy advocates 
about the airlines' use of confidential consumer data.

The nation's fourth-largest carrier publicly asserted in September that it 
"did not provide that type of information to anyone." But Northwest 
acknowledged Friday it had already turned over three months of reservation 
data to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Ames Research 
Center by that point.

Northwest is the second carrier to have been identified as secretly passing 
travelers' records to the government. The airline industry has publicly 
said it would not cooperate in development of a new government computer 
passenger screening program because of concerns the project would infringe 
on customer privacy. But the participation of two airlines in separate 
programs underscores the industry's clandestine role in government security 
initiatives.

In September, JetBlue admitted that it turned over passenger records to a 
defense contractor and apologized to its customers for doing so. Northwest 
said in a statement Friday that it participated in the NASA program after 
the 2001 terrorist attacks to assist the government's search for technology 
to improve aviation security. "Northwest Airlines had a duty and an 
obligation to cooperate with the federal government for national security 
reasons," the airline said.

The carrier declined to say how many passengers' records were shared with 
NASA from the period offered, October to December 2001. More than 10.9 
million passengers traveled on Northwest flights during that time, 
according to the Department of Transportation.

NASA documents show that NASA kept Northwest's so-called "passenger name 
records" until September 2003. Such records typically include passenger 
credit card numbers, addresses and telephone numbers.

NASA said it used the information to investigate whether "data mining" of 
the records could improve threat assessments of passengers, according to 
the agency's written responses to questions. At the time the agency also 
was exploring other possible projects aimed at improving air security, it 
said. NASA said no other airlines were involved in the project and that it 
did not share its data with other parties. The agency said it did not pay 
for the data.

The company said it did not inform any passengers that it shared data with 
NASA. It also said it did not believe that the data-sharing violated its 
privacy policy.

"Our privacy policy commits Northwest not to sell passenger information to 
third parties for marketing purposes," the company said in its statement 
Friday . "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 passenger 
information would be maintained."

Full text at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A26037-2004Jan17?language=printer

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