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Northwest Gives Personal Data to NASA
Tree writes "Following four months on the heels of JetBlue's confession that they released passenger data to the Feds against their stated privacy guidelines, the Washington Post is reporting that Northwest has now admitted that they've done the same thing during a time period when they said they weren't. Nice. They were once my favorite airline."
Then it should be easy to boycott and avoid them.
They were once my favorite airline.
With all the paranoid hoops the feds make travelers jump through to board an aircraft, I must admit my favorite airline is Amtrack these days, for shorter journeys.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
An article in the following day's St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press said: "Northwest Airlines will not share customer information, as JetBlue Airways has, Northwest chief executive Richard Anderson said Tuesday in brief remarks after addressing the St. Paul Rotary."
Somebody should ask Dick Anderson, what exactly did he mean by his statement? If that is not a bald-faced lie, then I don't know what is.
I hope the shareholders hold this guy accountable.
As the former owner of a Nortwest Frequent Flyer card (which I just cut up on reading this story), I'd just like to say "sayonara!" to Northwest. It was not the sharing of the data that was bad; it was lying about it and the "cross my heart, swear to God we don't do that" that pissed me off.
I can understand the need for exploring new security options. How hard would it have been to anonymize the data? Just run it through a one-way hash function, and you can provide the data without invading anyone's privacy.
This ineptitude and lying really irritates me.
I had a flight last week on Delta (not my favorite airline either) but when I showed up to the airport and had problems with Delta's (we don't want to talk to you so we make you deal with a machine) self-check in kiosk I found out that I was actually flying on Northwest. Huh? Apparantly even though I booked Delta, they codeshare with Northwest. I wonder if my passenger information is now in Northwest's database.
At least you have options. I lived in North Dakota for 21 years, and Northworst essentially has a monopoly there. I had to drive 2 hours to get on a damn DC-9 to Minneapolis (another of NWA's hubs, along with Detroit and Memphis) and take a transfer from there. While in college, I was prone to drive the 4 1/2 hours to Minneapolis and fly Frontier or Sun Country from there.
That said, I flew a Northworst/KLM combination flight to Athens and back. KLM is no comparison to Northworst - wonderful service; attractive, friendly stewardesses; better seats; and more. If you have to spend 2 hours on Northworst to get 10 hours on KLM, do it.
But for domestic flights that go over or near Denver en route, I now prefer Frontier. Especially with their revamped fleet of Airbuses. I recently flew with them on a plane that had only been in service for 2 weeks since it was brand new, replete with DirecTV in every seat-back. (I didn't pay the $5 because I had a book, but I watched the moving map a lot.) A little more expensive than other 'budget' airlines, but worth it in terms of service and comfort.
I have to admit - that right after 9/11, if NASA asked for a passenger list - I'd would have probably given it to them as fast as possible.
The trouble comes, though, is when a passanger asked me: "Did you share my data with anybody?"
I *would* have told them "Yeah... NASA got a copy. Got a problem with that?"
Airplanse travel over provate and public property - there should be no expecation of pricacy. When a 747 flies over my house - I expect the governemnt to protect me by making sure that some fundelementalist asshole isen't about to crash the plaine into my house.
So what if NASA got a copy of the files ? - it's the hining that's desturbing.
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/01/17/Tampabay/Snippy
In the EU we have learned that when the USA throws it weight around our EU laws count for very little.
The laws that were meant to protect the data of EU citizens has been ignored when it came to demands from the USA that personal data of EU air travellers be passed to the USA without the previous safeguards.
The Register has more details on how weak the EUs stand has been.
Perhaps they ought to vote for a non-control-freak Democrat in the primary. If they did, they'd have a good candidate in the election, and this candidate would win by a landslide.
Since it was the CIA that helped train and fund most of the basic infrastructure of al-Qaeda, maybe he should try blowbackunit@cia.gov.
Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
I wonder if good ol' boy George would be allowed to fly if the CAPPS2 system had access to his military AWOL status, his DUI, his credit scores, and his drug abuse.
There is no evidence of AWOL. This tale was made up by the fringe bush-haters, and all traces back to a rumor from someone's wife. If he had gone AWOL, it would be in military records. DUI? Fox News exposed this, the fact of it is old history. Drug abuse? No one can find any evidence of this: the only reason the "Drug abuse" story about Bush is there is because someone made it up because it sounds bad, and people that don't like Bush repeated it..... because it sounds bad.
The Bush AWOL story and drug story, is, like the story of Clinton executing dozens of opponents secretly in "arkancides", is just fiction made up by fringe haters.
NASA shares its expertise in different ways. I worked with an engineer who normaly developed various tools for use in space (one of his favorite was an emergency device used in case an astronaut got seperated from the structure during EVA). He also worked on a university research project to help develop a continuous flow heart pump.
Ah, perhaps I now understand the purpose of Bush's proposed increase in funding for NASA.
OK, not nearly as fast or convenient as air travel, but I don't feel the heavy hand of "homeland security" when I take Amtrack. It's such a pleasant, relaxing way of travel and although it's statistically safer, you have the distinct advantage of already being on the ground in the event of a calamity. Although I'm by no means advocating this, CCW holders can probably carry without anyone ever knowing.
Well, yes, and quite a few of us have also learned that it runs much deeper than just a simple decision made by the current president.
There's a REAL good chance that no matter who becomes president, this sort of thing will continue. The leaders of govt. organizations (you know, the typical 3 letter bureaus like the FBI, CIA, IRS, NSA, ATF) want more tools at their disposal to do their jobs -- "privacy" be dammed.
The president simply can't wave his hand or sign a piece of paper and make all of this go away. All of those groups serve useful purposes and nobody's likely to just abolish them completely while in their term of office.
While it IS true that the lines are quite blurred between "Democrat" and "Republican" nowdays - it's simple-minded thinking to blame these "big brother" issues squarely on the president, no matter what their supposed allegiance is politically. You've got all those senators and congressmen getting paid off/bribed to vote one way or the other, and legislation being written with sneaky, unrelated legal changes constantly trying to be snuck through. You've got huge power struggles between governmental agencies, and lots of "behind the scenes" bargaining for the "lesser of two evils" that the general public never sees when we ask "Why the h*ll did the president just sign THAT into law??"
All we can really do is speak out loudly and often when we see these injustices happen - so they can't just start running everything right past us.
Amtrak Sharing Rider Information, Profit from Seizures, with DEA
Amtrak is providing the DEA with ticketing information about passengers in an effort to stem the flow of illegal drugs. DEA agents have direct access to an Amtrak computer that contains information on passenger names, origination points, destinations, and payment information. In exchange for access to the database, Amtrak receives 10% of whatever seizures the DEA makes using the information.
- Amtrak Helps DEA Hunt Drug Couriers, Albuquerque Journal, April 11, 2001. (Ed.: link broken)
- Amtrak shares passenger info with DEA for drug prosecutions, Declan
- Your Rights Online: Keeping DEA In The Loop About Amtrak Travelers, Slashdot, April 15, 2001.
- Amtrak 'Sharing' Information With D.E.A., New York Times, April 15, 2001 (registration required).
So, the airlines aren't the only ones turning over passenger data to the government; Amtrak has been doing it even before 9/11. Their willingness to give up information for cash in the past leads me to believe they will likely do so in the future. And where does a huge chunk of their cash come from? The federal government (about $1 billion last year).McCullagh's politechbot.com, April 11, 2001.
You might think that Amtrak could be tempted to give up a lot of passenger data in return for $1 billion. Well, what if the feds doubled that? Senator Olympia Snowe (R) wants to raise Amtrak's funding to $2 billion a year over the next six years, with an additional $48 billion for maintenance and new construction. It's probably just coincidence that Snowe introduced a bill (S. 1599) pushing for "the Secretary of Homeland Security to conduct a study of the feasibility of implementing a program for the full screening of passengers, baggage, and cargo on Amtrak trains, and for other purposes." The best part is section 1.b, which says:
PILOT PROGRAM- As part of the study under subsection (a), the Secretary shall conduct a pilot program of random security screening of passengers and baggage at 5 of the 10 busiest passenger rail stations served by Amtrak (measured by the average number of boardings of Amtrak passenger trains) and at up to five additional rail stations served by Amtrak that are selected by the Secretary. In selecting the additional train stations the Secretary shall attempt to achieve a distribution of participating stations in terms of geographic location and size.
I feel safer already!
While this is offensive in many ways, anyone who thinks their private data are safe from Big Brother needs to stop flying, taking the bus, driving, and go into their basement and lock the doors.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
Both you and the AC who responded are close.
The initial designs involved a telescopic rod. Experiments on the Vomit Commet proved that once extended, the astronaut would be unable to maneuver the rod effectively (the test subject would attempt to move the rod and end up twisting themselves about with the rod remaining stationary). So that idea was scrapped and the engineer in question began working on the problem.
His design was effectively a compressed gas source connected to a hose with a hook on its end. The device itself would store nice and compact with the hose itself bunched up on to the device (kind of telescoped I suppose). The astronaut would arm the device and squeeze a lever to dump gas in to the inflatable hose and extend it towards the structure. With low mass, the extended hose can then be moved about until the astronaut is able to hook the structure. They can then deflate the host and pull themselves to safety.
Another tidbit about working for NASA - one retains ownership of one's ideas. NASA legal helped the engineer patent his device (with a royalty free provision for NASA use, of course). The device itself has been picked up in the civilian market as rescue gear for rescuing victims caught in thin ice or out in a river.