| -Caveat Lector-
What is NASA doing in this area of information? Screening passengers for a
trip to Mars? - JR
The Washington
Times
www.washingtontimes.com
NASA sought airline's recordsBy Frank J. Murray
Published September 27, 2003
Long before JetBlue was sued this week for
giving a military contractor computer data on a million passengers, NASA
quietly sought upward of 15 million passenger records from Northwest
Airlines for similar computerized security research.
Neither the airline � the world's
fourth-largest � nor the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
would say yesterday whether the data actually were handed over in response
to a letter NASA sent to Northwest's security manager, Jay Dombrowski, at
his suggestion during a Minneapolis meeting.
"We would like to request systemwide Northwest
Airlines' passenger data from July, August and September 2001," said the
letter signed by Thomas A. Edwards, chief of NASA's Aviation Systems
Division at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Northwest spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch said he did
not know if his airline turned over the "PNR data" (passenger-name
records), as the government asked.
"We are not
able to comment due to security regulations. We would urge you to contact
NASA or the Department of Defense," said Mr. Ebenhoch, without explaining
why the Pentagon would be involved.
Mr.
Edwards of NASA initially told The Washington Times yesterday no "specific
request" was made.
However, after hearing
passages from his letter to Mr. Dombrowski with a request so detailed that
it specified quick delivery either on CD-ROM or computer tape compatible
with any one of three storage tech drives, Mr. Edwards referred a reporter
to NASA spokesman Jonas Dino.
Mr. Dino said he
would seek information on the project, but did not call again.
Both JetBlue and Defense Department contractor
Torch Concepts emphasized this week that no government official had access
to "identifiable customer data" in its PNRs, and said the material was
destroyed when its existence was publicized.
"In hindsight, we realize that we made a
mistake," JetBlue CEO David Neeleman said Tuesday. At least three
class-action lawsuits were filed against JetBlue this week, a response
that cast NASA's request to Northwest in a new light.
PNRs are for specific reservations generally
stored in one of four commercial reservations systems. They include
identifiers that allow linkage with unrelated travel records for the same
person. Each PNR includes a passenger's name, phone number, ticketing date
and flight number. Optional PNR data includes address, form of payment,
frequent-flyer numbers, hotel and rental car data, internal airline
messages and information on minors traveling alone.
In addition to comparing the data with
government no-fly lists, commercial software can use PNR data to detect
double-booking and fictitious names.
Mr.
Edwards' request letter, and a separate e-mail from a NASA research
director seeking information on Northwest's security training, made clear
the material would be used for upgrading computerized airline passenger
screening in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks when 19 Islamic
terrorists hijacked four airliners.
That
research involved the forthcoming successor to the Computer-Aided
Passenger Pre-Screening (CAPPS) system. CAPPS II is to include passengers'
birth dates, and its broader scope has been widely criticized as overly
intrusive.
Patricia M. Jones, deputy division
chief of NASA's Human Factors Research and Technology, dispatched the
e-mail requesting training and user manuals in preparation for later
contacts with Northwest personnel in San Francisco.
Both documents were among two dozen pages
obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request by the Electronic Privacy
Information Center. The Times reported briefly on the PNR request in an
August 2002 article devoted largely to the Northwest-NASA meeting that
dealt with futuristic security research, including proposals to
electronically analyze brain waves of airport travelers.
David Sobel of the Electronic Privacy
Information Center said yesterday that EPIC would follow up to learn the
fate of Northwest's dealings with NASA. He said the revelation that both
Northwest and JetBlue were involved in such research indicated the
practice was much wider than he had feared.
"There is now a general concern that this kind
of under-the-table request for sensitive personal information has been
commonplace," Mr. Sobel said. "The reaction to the JetBlue revelation
shows the public is deeply concerned about the government receiving
detailed information about their travel habits."
He said the government has not properly
justified its need for such data, and has not pursued it openly with
advance notice to travelers.
"It can't be done
under the table. That's what happened with JetBlue, and if a transfer
occurred at Northwest, that's what happened here. Seeking the information
without putting the public on notice is certainly a problem," he said.
Mr. Edwards was among a handful of NASA
officials at that Minneapolis meeting Dec. 10-11, 2001.
"We did discuss whether passenger information
would be of use in doing research. We didn't get to the point of making a
specific request. It was really just talking about airline security," he
said yesterday.
The letter faxed to Mr.
Dombrowski 10 days after the meeting recalled NASA's "need for three
months' of Northwest Airlines passenger data (your PNR data)" and
expressed urgency in receiving it. The airline reported carrying 54.1
million passengers in 2001 and because of September 11 the third quarter
of that year included both the high and low points of air travel.
"At that time you suggested a letter be sent
from NASA Ames to Northwest Airlines requesting this data. ... We would
like to begin to use this data as soon as possible, since we [are]
planning on having a demonstration of our technology in this area near the
end of January," Mr. Edwards told Northwest.
Copyright � 2003 News World
Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
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