President George W. Bush last night in his State of the Union address said the United States will continue to check airline passenger databases and take on other measures that impact aviation security issues. The policy will continue to generate controversy, as shown by the recent revelations regarding Northwest Airlines' transfer of passenger data to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and keep the nation at odds with other countries.
"We must continue to give our homeland security and law enforcement personnel every tool they need to defend us," Bush said. "America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our country."
That defense includes a proposal requiring armed sky marshals aboard foreign commercial airplanes entering and exiting the United States--an idea that has met opposition in certain countries--in addition to an existing program that places security personnel on domestic flights.
In a speech yesterday in Washington, British Airways CEO Rod Eddington called for deeper cooperation and a multilateral approach to resolve security issues. "There are a number of sensitive issues facing us, such as the provision of sky marshals on non-U.S. carriers and the requirement for biometric data on passports," he said. "These are surely best tackled by a cooperative dialogue rather than by extra-territorial imposition."
"We understand that it is sometimes imperative for one party to act unilaterally to ensure that an immediate threat can be countered," Eddington added. "However, a unilateral imposition of longer-term security measures can be counter-productive."
He noted that multilateral cooperation led to "a perfectly acceptable result" for the transmission of passenger name record data from the European Union to U.S. authorities
(BTNonline, Jan. 5), but airline passenger data privacy continues to be a touchy issue within the United States.
Even as Bush last night told the world that U.S. "analysts are examining airline passenger lists," Northwest Airlines is trying to deflect controversy away from recent revelations about its cooperation with a NASA aviation security research study. In a statement over the weekend, the carrier said it agreed in September 2001 to hand over PNR data "for exclusive use" to a federal agency "with its own strict privacy protections."
"Northwest acted appropriately and consistently with its own privacy policy and all applicable federal laws," the airline said, noting that it does not provide data to private contractors nor does it sell passenger information to third parties for marketing purposes. "While Northwest Airlines still believes it would be appropriate to provide such data to the U.S. government to advance aviation security, Northwest believes a data protection protocol addressing privacy concerns should be developed before any further aviation security research with passenger data is conducted."
Nevertheless, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a public interest advocacy group, yesterday filed a complaint and request for investigation with the U.S. Department of Transportation regarding the Northwest situation. "Northwest has engaged in an unfair and deceptive practice by disclosing consumer personal information," EPIC said in the filing, noting the likelihood of Northwest including information on European citizens as a result of its close cooperation with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. EPIC requested that Northwest notify impacted passengers and that DOT levy any "appropriate" civil penalties after an investigation.
JetBlue Airways last year faced a similar attack by civil liberties groups when it acknowledged it had violated its own privacy policy by providing PNR data to a U.S. Army contractor
(BTN, Oct. 6, 2003).