Data Disclosure Contradicts Feds
American Airlines becomes the third airline in eight months to admit it has shared passenger data with the government. But for months the government has claimed it never asked for or received any data. What's going on? By Ryan Singel. [Wired News]

Stupid AA.

American Airlines' announcement Friday that it shared more than a million passenger itineraries with four government contractors reveals that Transportation Security Administration officials have repeatedly issued false statements about the development of the passenger-profiling system known as CAPPS II.

American Airlines joins a growing list of carriers that have come forth in recent months to say that they have shared massive amounts of information about their passengers with the TSA. For the past eight months, TSA officials have repeatedly said they were not collecting this data. But American's disclosure raises questions about why the department has given false information about its data collection.


The TSA also may have withheld information improperly from investigators looking into the agency's practices.

Nuala O'Connor Kelly, the Department of Homeland Security's chief privacy officer, said she has launched a formal review of the American Airlines transfer. She said she did not know about these transfers when she issued a report in February about the TSA's role in convincing JetBlue to share 5 million itineraries with an Army contractor in August 2002.

If we were lucky enough to have a real government, heads would roll over this. As is, I assume one week from now, nobody will even remember the incident, besides civil libertarian types like myself.....

Personally, I am considering stopping using my AA miles. I never cash them anyway.

and more from Wired:

In September 2003, Wired News asked TSA spokesman Nico Melendez whether those four contractors had used real passenger records to test and develop their systems. Melendez denied it, saying, "We have only used dummy data to this point."

"Our agency was only five months old at the time" when these four companies were developing their systems, Melendez said. "We did not need the data at that time."

Mark Hatfield, the TSA's director of communications, denied that agency spokesmen deceptively gave out incorrect information.

"If Nico Melendez and Brian Turmail were not aware of it or were not told internally when they asked people closest to those events who did not know or did not inform them, it is a reach to say they lied or there was an attempt to deceive because I know both of these individuals and don't believe either of them would do that," Hatfield said.

When Wired News asked Hatfield in January whether the contractors had used actual passenger data, he said he did not know and that he would look into the matter. Hatfield declined to speculate why Melendez and Turmail denied a transfer took place, saying he was not a party to that conversation.

Wired News followed up on that inquiry with a Freedom of Information Act request. The agency denied the request for expedited processing, which Wired News appealed to Douglas Callen, who heads the TSA's Office of Security. Callen denied the appeal, writing that Wired News "failed to demonstrate there exists an 'urgency to inform the public about an actual or alleged federal government activity.'"

Almost six months after the original request, the TSA has yet to release any of the requested documents.