IP: They will know where you are thinking of going

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Date: Wed, 08 Jul 1998 10:21:46 -0400
To: farber () cis upenn edu
From: Lorrie Faith Cranor <lorrie () research att com>






Sabre isn't the only online travel agency that may become big
brother. At the Department of Commerce's Public Meeting on 
Internet Privacy two weeks ago, Reid Detchon of the Interactive 
Travel Services Association said that the major airlines are
pressuring online travel agencies to enter into agreements that
would require the travel agents to monitor all visitors to their Web 
sites and pass the data along to the airlines. This includes requiring
all visitors to register with name, address, and passport number
before they even decide to purchase a ticket!


ITSA has a press release on this topic at http://www.interactivetravel.org/news.htm
I'm attaching it below:


------------------------------------------


NEWS RELEASE  


For Immediate Release:                              June 23, 1997    
Contact:   Ed Rothschild                            202-879-9317  
                     rothschild () interactivetravel org  


Online Travel Services Criticize Airline Efforts To Obtain
Detailed Consumer Information  


Washington ­ Calling attention to efforts by the nation’s major airlines to
obtain detailed information on consumers, the executive director of the
Interactive Travel Services Association (ITSA) today criticized such 
efforts as a
strategy to invade consumer privacy and undermine effective competition.  


In a statement before a Department of Commerce summit meeting dealing with
privacy issues on the Internet, Reid Detchon, executive director of ITSA, said
that the association will protect the privacy of consumers by adopting
guidelines proposed by the Online Privacy Alliance.  Many ITSA members
already are in compliance.  


At the same time, however, Detchon warned of new, so-called “recommended
practices” issued by the Air Transport Association, the trade association of
major airlines.  


“The airlines want members of my association to gather and provide them with
specific information about our customers ­ at a level far more detailed than
what has been traditionally required to buy an airline ticket,” said Detchon.  


“This step is alarming,” continued Detchon, “because agents have little choice
but to comply with a demand from their suppliers.”   


In a May 1998 document, the ATA “recommends” that electronic agents:   


     - Track individual users’ usage 
     - Collect appropriate information about a user (e.g., name, address,
       phone number, passport number, etc.) upon registration of that user 
     - Assign a unique identifier to each individual that uses the 
       tool to query information from an airline via electronic means.  
       The identifier should be easily tied to a particular user 


“The airlines describe these ‘recommended practices’ as intended to prevent
imagined  e-commerce abuse.  However, these practices could also enable the
airlines to build databases of customer identities, interests, and travel 
histories ­ databases to help them capture those customers for 
themselves,” said Detchon.  


“The airlines,” Detchon observed,  “have been moving aggressively to capture
passenger traffic on their proprietary web sites and have cut commissions to
online travel agents ­ their competitors for that traffic ­ below what is 
in most cases the cost of doing business.  Without external intervention, 
agents are powerless to resist.”  


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Lorrie Faith Cranor                    lorrie () research att com
AT&T Labs-Research                                973-360-8607
180 Park Ave. Room A241                       FAX 973-360-8809
Florham Park, NJ 07932    http://www.research.att.com/~lorrie/