Government may have broken law re: asking airlines for data

[Bluebear]

WASHINGTON - The government may have broken federal privacy law when it asked airlines to turn over personal data about passengers for a test of background-check project, a senator said Wednesday.


Four airlines and at least two reservation systems provided the information to the government or its contractors, the acting head of the Transportation Security Administration told a Senate committee. Some of the companies denied that.


The agency previously had said only two airlines had done so.

Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, top Democrat on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee said the agency "may have violated" the Privacy Act, which says the government must notify the public if it intends to collect records on people.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040623/ap_on_re_us/passenger_privacy_5