According to the Associated Press, US District Judge Carol
Bagley Amon, sitting in the District Court for the Eastern District
of New York, found that JetBlue had acted in breach of its privacy
agreement. But because passengers were unable to show that they had
been damaged by the breach the case had to be dismissed.
Speaking to the Associated Press, Jenny Derbin, spokeswoman for
JetBlue, said, “Although the action was found to be lawful, it
violated our privacy protection policy."
"We regret that deeply,” she continued. “We have no intention of
sharing information with any third party."
The case dates back to September 2002, when, at the request of
the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA), JetBlue
released personal details – names, addresses and phone numbers – of
over one million of its passengers to US Defence Department
contractor Torch Concepts so that the contractor could study its
ability to assess the terrorist risk of passengers.
The test involved checking the passenger information against
other databases to which the contractor had access.
A data company called Acxiom provided the additional information
– which included social security numbers and income levels – even
though both Acxiom and JetBlue had visible privacy policies stating
that personal information would not be given out to third
parties.
In September 2003, customers of the airline filed a class action
against JetBlue over the alleged breach of privacy, while civil
liberties group the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against JetBlue
and Acxiom.
The US Army ordered its own investigation into the affair,
looking for violations of the US Privacy Act. This Act is designed
to ensure that there are no secret government systems for gathering
personal data, and that any data collected is restricted to that
which is strictly necessary.
In August 2004, the Army's inspector general published a report
exonerating Torch Concepts from any privacy breaches.
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