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Northwest hit with class-action suit
Lawsuit filed on behalf of passenger alleges No. 4 carrier inappropriately shared info. with NASA.
January 21, 2004: 1:00 PM EST

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Northwest Airlines faces a class-action lawsuit and potential civil penalties after the No. 4 U.S. carrier acknowledged that it provided passenger information to NASA, according to a published report Wednesday.

The suit, filed on behalf of Northwest passenger Eric Povitz, alleges that the company violated its own privacy policy as well as state and federal laws by giving the National Aeronautics and Space Administration data as part of a safety project, according to the Star Tribune.

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Northwest confirmed it shared passenger information after the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a non-profit group, obtained NASA and company documents through the Freedom of Information Act, the paper reported.

The privacy group has also filed a complaint against Northwest with the U.S. Department of Transportation, according to the Star Tribune.

The group said that the Transportation Department has the power to "prosecute cases regarding the unfair and deceptive practices of air carriers," which could also lead to civil penalties against Northwest, the paper reported.

In response to the Northwest complaint, the Transportation Department told the paper it would "review the complaint and determine what action if any, should be taken...the law does not prohibit airlines from providing or selling passenger information such as passenger lists."

Northwest (NWAC: Research, Estimates) said "by providing the passenger name record data directly to NASA, a federal agency with its own strict privacy protections, Northwest acted appropriately."  Top of page




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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.