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From: "monty solomon" <monty@xxxxxxxxxx>
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JetBlue 'Fesses Up, Quietly
By Ryan Singel
02:00 AM Sep. 19, 2003 PT
JetBlue Airways began sending out apologetic e-mails Thursday to
customers who are infuriated that the airline gave 5 million passenger
records to a defense contractor investigating national security issues.
The form letter, provided by JetBlue to Wired News, confirmed a Wired
News story that JetBlue turned over the names, addresses and phone
numbers of its customers in September 2002 in response to an
"exceptional request from the Department of Defense to assist their
contractor, Torch Concepts, with a project regarding military base
security."
The e-mail was carefully worded to say that data was never provided to a
government agency or used for airline security testing, that the sole
copy had been destroyed, and that the Torch presentation was developed
without JetBlue's knowledge. The company also expressed regret and
promised never to turn over passenger information again without court
order.
The letter will not be placed on the company's website, but will go out
under the name of JetBlue's CEO, David Neeleman, said JetBlue spokesman
Gareth Edmundson-Jones. The e-mail closed with, "I am saddened that we
have shaken your faith in JetBlue but I assure you personally that we
are committed to making this right." Jones added the company was
"flabbergasted" when they first saw the Torch Concepts presentation.
The Torch presentation (PDF) shows that Torch investigated the viability
of airline passenger profiling, by combining the JetBlue data with
Social Security numbers, income levels, number of children and vehicle
ownership that Torch purchased from Acxiom, a company that sells
consumer data.
...
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,60502,00.html