The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has revealed plans to conduct a privacy review of the 10 largest U.S. airlines, looking into how they collect, handle, maintain and use passengers’ personal information, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg announced Thursday.
The 10 carriers include Allegiant, Alaska, American, Delta, Frontier, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit and United.
The review, which is part of the Biden administration's broader push to protect consumer privacy across the economy, will investigate airlines' policies and procedures to ensure that they are properly safeguarding travelers' personal information and not unfairly or deceptively monetizing or sharing that data with third parties.
If evidence is found, DOT is prepared to take action, including launching investigations, taking enforcement actions, issuing guidance and implementing new rules and regulations.
As part of the review, DOT has sent letters to the 10 airlines requesting information regarding the aforementioned policies and procedures as well as any complaints alleging that airline employees or contractors mishandled personal information or otherwise alleging that an airline violated an individual's privacy and information about privacy training, which includes materials used for training, types of personnel that receive the training and the frequency of the training.
"Airline passengers should have confidence that their personal information is not being shared improperly with third parties or mishandled by employees," Buttigieg said in a statement.
"This review of airline practices is the beginning of a new initiative by DOT to ensure airlines are being good stewards of sensitive passenger data. DOT is grateful for the expertise and partnership of Senator Wyden as we undertake this effort to protect passengers," he added.
"Secretary Buttigieg and the Biden Administration deserve serious credit for working with me to launch a new initiative to review the privacy practices of the major U.S. airlines," added Senator Ron Wyden.
"Because consumers will often never know that their personal data was misused or sold to shady data brokers, effective privacy regulation cannot depend on consumer complaints to identify corporate abuses. I will continue to work with DOT to ensure that it is holding the airlines responsible for harmful or negligent privacy practices."
A spokeswoman for Airlines for America (A4A) told the Associated Press that "U.S. airlines take customers' personal information security very seriously, which is why they have robust policies, programs and cybersecurity infrastructure to protect consumers' privacy."
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