Army: JetBlue Data Use Was Legal 

By Ryan Singel
02:00 AM Aug. 23, 2004 PT

An Army data-mining project that searched through JetBlue's passenger 
records and sensitive personal information from a data broker to 
pinpoint possible terrorists did not violate federal privacy law, 
according to an investigation by the Army's inspector general.

The inspector general's findings (PDF) were accepted by some, but 
critics say the report simply highlights the inability of the 
country's privacy laws to cope with 21st-century anti-terrorism 
efforts.

News of the Army project came to light in September 2003 when JetBlue 
admitted it had violated its privacy policy by turning over 5.1 
million passenger records to Torch Concepts , an Alabama-based 
defense contractor.

Torch subsequently enhanced the JetBlue data with information about 
passengers' salaries, family size and Social Security numbers that it 
purchased from Acxiom , one of the country's largest data aggregators.

The Army says it was testing the data-mining technology as part of a 
plan to screen visitors to Army bases.

...


http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,64647,00.html

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