Uncle Sam wants to know how big airlines use passenger data Ever suspected an airline was using your data to upsell, overcharge, target you with ads, or was selling it to third parties? Worried about how secure their systems are when you input that passport number? The US Department of Transportation is looking into it with a review of the country's ten biggest airlines. The probe will …
I'd love to do a similar review on how the US adminstration and agencies are using the passenger records and other data it gets from Europe. Alas, no way any non US organization will have a chance to get them to show what they do with that data and verify it is only used to keep everyone safe.
Two weak links in airline processes I've noticed:
1. Airline booking codes being the key to everything. A 6 digit code, first and last name and you can modify everything about someone's flight
2. The potential to swap tickets and be on a flight under a different name once through security. Two similar looking people could swap tickets for example, the passport check at the gate is cursory and often they're looking at the name more than any form of identification.
I nearly got knocked over last week walking from the plane into the terminal building by a guy rushing past me. He vanished off up ahead.
At passport security I ignored the facial recognition scanners which are always a nightmare and joined the short queue for a human at a desk.
I'd been standing at baggage reclaim a few minutes when I noticed the guy in a hurry arrive into the baggage hall. I can only assume he'd been stuck at one of the facial recognition machines, since he should have been at least 5 mins ahead of me.
Every single PNR on a US domestic flight is also sent to the Department of Homeland Security, as the airline cannot print a boarding pass for you until DHS approves it. Prior to 9/11, various agencies would send watch lists to the airlines who then had to put it into their systems, but now it is all centralized.
Frequent Flyer data is jealously guarded by the major carriers, they often won't even share it with other departments at their own airline. They make way too much money flogging credit cards and selling miles, and won't share their database.
My background - I worked in travel IT, primarily airlines, for the last 35+ years.
A.
What do you think of the argument that airlines are banks whose side job is transportation?
Same article, one paywalled.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/airlines-banks-mileage-programs/675374/
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/airlines-are-just-banks-now/ar-AA1h34ex
First place I heard this argued:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggUduBmvQ_4
I'm just a layman who used to be a frequent flyer prior to March 2020.
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It is thoroughy thrilling to see that the US Government is suddenly very keen on finding out how personal data is used in the US, but doesn't give a flying fig about how everyone else's data in the world is being slurped and abused by US companies.
I'll be waiting for the day when the US is going to enshrine in law how US citizens' data is supposed to be protected, then watch as the rest of the world says "and what about us ?".
Some details of how personal data is sold in the USA is available:
https://www.sos.la.gov/ElectionsAndVoting/BecomeACandidate/PurchaseVoterLists/Pages/default.aspx
You can purchase the entire Voter lists ... "A database of public information of registered voters is only available for purchase using specifically defined selection criteria. The voter list is available through email as a PDF or tab delimited text file."
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