Advocates To Airlines: Shut Your Trap! | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-05.06.24

Airborne-NextGen-04.30.24

Airborne-Unlimited-05.01.24 Airborne-AffordableFlyers--05.02.24

Airborne-Unlimited-05.03.24

Thu, Jan 22, 2004

Advocates To Airlines: Shut Your Trap!

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.

FMI: www.nwa.com

Advertisement

More News

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (05.07.24): Hazardous Weather Information

Hazardous Weather Information Summary of significant meteorological information (SIGMET/WS), convective significant meteorological information (convective SIGMET/WST), urgent pilot>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (05.07.24)

Aero Linx: The T-6 Racing Association The T-6 Racing Association is all about T-6‘s and racing. Our mission is to bring great racing to our fans in Reno and other venues wher>[...]

Airborne 05.01.24: WACO Kitchen, FAA Reauthorization, World Skydiving Day

Also: Electra Aero, AMO-CBP v Smugglers, Naval King Airs, Boeing Deal To the surprise of everyone involved, Waco Kitchen shut down both airport operations with little warning and h>[...]

Airborne Affordable Flyers 05.02.24: Bobby Bailey, SPRG Report Cards, Skydive!

Also: WACO Kitchen Bails, French SportPlane Mfr to FL, Dynon-Advance Flight Systems, Innovation Preview Bobby Bailey, a bit of a fixture in sport aviation circles for his work with>[...]

Airborne 05.03.24: Advanced Powerplant Solutions, PRA Runway Woes, Drone Racing

Also: Virgin Galactic, B-29 Doc to Allentown, Erickson Fire-Fighters Bought, FAA Reauthorization After dealing with a big letdown after the unexpected decision by Skyreach to disco>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2024 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC