Airlines Gave More Data Than Previously Disclosed

scottfk writes "Wired news has an article exposing the fact that still more customer data recorded by airlines were turned over to the TSA for their CAPPS II testing. From the article, 'Delta, Continental, America West, JetBlue and Frontier Airlines secretly turned over sensitive passenger data to Transportation Security Administration contractors in the spring and summer of 2002, according to the sworn statement of acting TSA chief David Stone. In addion, two of the four largest airline reservation centers, Galileo International and Sabre, also gave sensitive passenger information, including home phone numbers, credit card numbers and health data, without disclosing the transfers to travelers or asking their permission.'"

Comments

Can you say lawsuit?

[g0bshiTe]

Galileo International and Sabre, also gave sensitive passenger information, including home phone numbers, credit card numbers and health data, without disclosing the transfers to travelers or asking their permission.'"

Is a direct violation of the Grahm Leech Bliley Act which states that any private information may not be released to third parties without the persons prior notice. The only time it may be given out is if there is an investigation into that individual. Seeing as how several airlaines gave it to the TSA I wonder who authorized that information to be released? Had I flown with them then and found this out, the requesting agency had better have the proper authorization, or I would damn sure file a class action lawsuit against the TSA and the airline.

A little more information

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm posting this AC because it touches on my job and I try to keep that separate.

Sabre and Galileo are Global Distribution Systems, or just GDSs to people in the travel industry. Several are or were started by groups of major airlines. Worldspan is another; I forget the names of the rest. There are about five of them in total, and they formerly were a very heavily federally regulated industry, the idea being that if they were allowed to, for example, choose their own prices they could offer different prices to different airlines (or different travel agents) and exert an unfair hold on the market. They've been deregulated by Congress within the last year, but it's too soon to say what effect that will have.

The relevant part is this: If you purchase a plane ticket, regardless of how or where you buy it, your availability and booking are handled by one of the GDSes. Access methods vary by GDS, but the reality of it is, much of your information is available to not just the government, but really anyone with the proper knowledge of how to get at it. I can't imagine too many hackers being very interested in getting your mom's flight information or personal info from Sabre, but if they did it wouldn't be especially hard.

There aren't a lot of choices to insure your privacy here. Most of us can't realistically choose not to fly.

Re:Unnecessary

[stanmann]

Constitution Ammendments 1,2,4,5,6,9,10 Provide Constitutional privacy protections...

please note, that NO-where did I use the phrase right to privacy, I said constitutional privacy protections.