Archive for September 27th, 2004

Army released a report about JetBlue privacy violation case

Monday, September 27th, 2004

Army inspector general released findings on investigating Torch Concepts, a defense contractor, privacy violation on testing data-mining techniques on JetBlue Airline passenger records. According to the report, Torch Concepts did not violate the Privacy Act of 1974 because the personal data was collected from private sources and was never in the hands of the government. Compare this report with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s Report to the Public on Events Surrounding JetBlue’s Data Transfer, in which the DHS privacy officer said TSA employees violated the spirit of the 1974 Privacy Act by asking JetBlue to provide data. More discussion can be found here.