WP: (More) Confidential Passenger Data Used for Air Security Project

[Newsjock]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26037-2004Jan17.html

By Sara Kehaulani Goo
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 17, 2004; 6:50 PM

Northwest Airlines provided information on millions of passengers for a secret U.S. government air security project soon after the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks, raising fresh concerns among some privacy advocates about the airlines' use of confidential consumer data.

The nation's fourth-largest carrier publicly asserted in September that it "did not provide that type of information to anyone." But Northwest acknowledged Friday it had already turned over three months of reservation data to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Ames Research Center by that point.

Northwest is the second carrier to have been identified as secretly passing travelers' records to the government. The airline industry has publicly said it would not cooperate in development of a new government computer passenger screening program because of concerns the project would infringe on customer privacy. But the participation of two airlines in separate programs underscores the industry's clandestine role in government security initiatives.

In September, JetBlue admitted that it turned over passenger records to a defense contractor and apologized to its customers for doing so. Northwest said in a statement Friday that it participated in the NASA program after the 2001 terrorist attacks to assist the government's search for technology to improve aviation security. "Northwest Airlines had a duty and an obligation to cooperate with the federal government for national security reasons," the airline said.

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[Fitzovich]

1. Gotta love it..

Love the last comment here by NW Airlines. I assume the NW did not have a duty to protect the privacy of it's passengers.

[salin]

2. kick

:kick:

[CHIMO]

3. O.K.

So what next? Maybe Norton?

[peacetalksforall]

4. What do you say...that the airlines were held hostage

by Ashcroft and the admin when they asked for bailout money after the grounding and loss of passengers after 9-11. Sure, we'll give you the taxpayers money - just provide data to Poindexter that he can mine and manipulate.

Or do you think that Northwest was just being patriotic?

[Robb]

5. Northwest has been on-board since 1996

There's an interesting PDF from NASA here, a report very much pre-9/11 describing Northwest's work with the FAA to develop (and improve) the first automated passenger screening system, as it would relate to terrorist profiling. This was right after Lockerbie.

Northwest didn't need to be bribed, they had sold out privacy concerns long ago.

(Edited to add): Herb Schlickenmaier has his name on the end of that report. He's NASA's Programs & Policy Integration guru, served on the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security starting 1996, and got the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 1997. There's a Moonie Times article out there that claims he's got NASA and Northwest involved in developing "brain-monitoring devices" for airport screening, but we should consider the source there. :)

[lostnfound]

6. I strongly suspect that they all do. n/t

[Just Me]

7. NASA'S AMES RESEARCH CENTER????

Why the hell is such information being turned over to THAT particular group? Am I missing (have I totally missed) something? I mean,...I guess I just assumed that kind of information would be directed to CIA or SS or something like that.

<edited for stupid typo>