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09/18/2003 Archived Entry: "You might as well fly naked"

HAVE A NICE FLIGHT!

JetBlue Airways confirmed on Thursday that in September 2002, it provided 5 million passenger itineraries to a defense contractor for proof-of-concept testing of a Pentagon project unrelated to airline security -- with help from the Transportation Security Administration.

The contractor, Torch Concepts, then augmented that data with Social Security numbers and other sensitive personal information, including income level, to develop what looks to be a study of whether passenger-profiling systems such as CAPPS II are feasible.

This was in violation of both JetBlue's own privacy policy and the federal Privacy Act. However, the contractor's lawyer says he now can't reveal anything more about it because of "confidentiality agreements." Huh?

The "other sensitive personal information" that has now been placed in dossiers under control of the Pentagon includes, in addition to your Serf Number and your income, your occupation, the vehicles you own, and how many children you have.

(Thanks again to Free-Market.net.)

Posted by Claire @ 11:58 AM CST
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