Jude Dismisses JetBlue Passenger Invasion of Privacy Suit

Updated: 8:18 a.m. ET Aug. 2, 2005


LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - JetBlue Airways passengers whose personal information was used without their knowledge in a federally funded study of aviation security didn’t show they suffered any harm and aren’t entitled to damages, a federal judge says.

U.S. District Judge Carol Bagley Amon in New York signed an order Friday dismissing a class-action lawsuit against JetBlue, Little Rock-based Acxiom Corp., Torch Concepts of Huntsville, Ala., and SRS Technologies of Newport Beach, Calif.

Acxiom and Torch are database management companies and SRS is a Department of Defense contractor. JetBlue and Acxiom supplied passenger information to Torch, an SRS subcontractor that analyzed it in an effort to ****identify people who might be a risk to military installations.***

“The only benefit JetBlue derived was ‘the potential for increased safety on its flights and the potential to prevent the use of commercial airlines as weapons that target military bases,”’ Amon wrote.

The database of former JetBlue passengers included whether they owned or rented their home, how long they had lived at that residence, the number of immediate family members, Social Security numbers and whether they owned or leased their car, the lawsuit said.