The U.S. Department of Transportation announced the first industry-wide review of data security and privacy policies across the nation's largest airlines.
The DOT said in a Thursday press release that the review will examine whether major U.S. airlines are adequately protecting customers' personal information and whether the airlines are “improperly or deceptively monetizing that data or He said he would investigate whether the information was shared with other people.
The letter to airline executives includes information on how airlines collect and handle passenger personal information, how they monetize customer data through targeted advertising, and which employees and contractors they use to handle passenger information. Questions include things like how contractors are trained.
These airlines include Allegiant, Alaska, American, Delta, Frontier, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit, and United.
The department, which oversees U.S. government policy on all transportation-related issues, said it would investigate and take enforcement action if it found evidence of questionable practices.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the purpose of the review was to “ensure that airlines are properly managing sensitive passenger data.”
The DOT did not provide a specific trigger for the review, but said the action was part of the U.S. government's “broader push to protect consumer privacy across the economy.”
In recent months, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which regulates consumer data privacy issues, has banned data brokers and other companies from sharing users' sensitive location and browsing data with others, resulting in data breaches. ordered companies to overhaul their security practices and promised to: The move would strengthen a federal law known as COPPA that prohibits companies from obtaining data about children under 13.
The DOT said the FTC is “also considering rules that would more broadly crack down on harms caused by surveillance and lax data security.”
Transportation Secretary Buttigieg said the DOT's privacy review will be conducted with the expertise and partnership of Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Wyden warns that sensitive U.S. consumer data is being shared and sold to data brokers. Data brokers are companies that collect and resell personal data, such as precise location data, often obtained from people's cell phones or computers.
Wyden has warned in recent months that data brokers are selling access to Americans' personal information and can determine which websites they visit and where they travel. Mr. Wyden also warned that U.S. intelligence agencies can and do buy commercial information about Americans from data brokers, but argued that intelligence agencies do not need to obtain search warrants for the data they can buy. are doing.
“Effective privacy regulation will protect companies from fraudulent activity because consumers often never know that their personal data has been misused or sold to shady data brokers,” Wyden said in a statement. “We cannot rely on consumer complaints to identify.”