ACLU sets up JetBlue FOIA site: Are you in Fed database? [priv]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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Subject: JetBlue FOIA/Privacy Act request Web form
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 12:01:28 -0400
From: "Stanley, Jay" <jstanley () aclu org>
To: <declan () well com>

Declan,

Politech readers may be interested to learn that we have set up a Web page 
where anyone who suspects their personal information might have been part 
of the recent JetBlue privacy breach can to file a FOIA/Privacy Act request 
to find out what the government may be holding on them.

Our press release on the page is below.

Best,

Jay Stanley
Communications Director, Technology and Liberty Program
American Civil Liberties Union
202-715-0818
Fax 202-546-0738


Following JetBlue Privacy Breach, ACLU Urges Customers To Find Out If They 
Are In Government Database
- New ACLU Web Page Lets Passengers File Requests Under Privacy Act -

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 24, 2003
CONTACT: Jay Stanley, ACLU TLP, (202) 715-0818

NEW YORK- The American Civil Liberties Union today unveiled an online form 
that lets airline passengers automatically issue an official Privacy Act 
request for any information that the government may hold about them in 
connection with the recent transfer of passenger data by the airline JetBlue.

"We want to empower people to find out for themselves if they have been 
caught up in this experiment in using average Americans' personal 
information in a misguided effort to detect terrorists," said Barry 
Steinhardt, Director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Program, which 
set up the site. "We believe this page is an unprecedented tool. It lets 
Americans file official requests without having to hire a lawyer or become 
an expert in privacy law."

Creation of the page follows last week's revelation that JetBlue had shared 
five million passenger records with a subcontractor for the Pentagon, Torch 
Concepts. The company was then was able to match 40 percent of those 
records with further personal details - such as income, occupation, and 
Social Security number - obtained from the data merchant Acxiom.

The Web page allows individuals who flew with JetBlue before September of 
2002 (when the airline turned over its data to the government) to generate 
an official request under the Privacy Act of 1974 and the Freedom of 
Information Act for any data held about them in connection with JetBlue by 
the Department of Defense (DoD), the Army, and the Transportation Security 
Administration (TSA).

"After I realized that I personally flew JetBlue during the period in 
question, I decided to file a personal Privacy Act request for my files," 
said Steinhardt. "Then it occurred to us that people who aren't ACLU 
lawyers should have an easy way to submit their own requests for their 
files. So we set up this page so that anyone can exercise their legal right 
to access files about them being held by the government."

Steinhardt noted that the ACLU has also filed a Freedom of Information Act 
request for information about the acquisition, use, and purposes of the 
JetBlue data. That broader request is separate from individual requests 
filed using the new Web page. "We intend to get to the bottom of this - who 
did what with whose data and why," said Steinhardt.

The Web page is online at: 
<http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=13688&c=40>. It can also be 
accessed from www.aclu.org/privacy.

                                                ###

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