Airline Passenger Profiling Study Goes Awry

On September 18, Wired reported that JetBlue Airways had shared 5 million passenger itineraries with a government contractor who in turn enhanced the dataset with information including associated social security numbers and income demographics, which then became part of a study, Homeland Security — Airline Passenger Risk Assessment. The airline’s chief executive subsequently sent an email to an undisclosed number of passengers who complained, apologizing for this breach of privacy.

Posted in: Privacy