Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Chair

Ms. Deborah Ale Flint, Member

Mr. David Berg, Member

Mr. Charlie Leocha, Member

Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protection (ACACP)

Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings 

U.S. Department of Transportation

1200 New Jersey Ave. SE.

Washington, DC, 20590 

December 2, 2013

Dear Ms. Madigan and Members of the ACACP:

As organizations and individuals with expertise and experience relevant to consumer privacy, we

welcome the interest of the ACACP in the privacy of air travelers as a consumer protection issue.

The exclusive jurisdiction of the Department of Transportation (DOT) over many of the 

activities of travel companies preempts action by the agencies with primary responsibility for 

protecting consumer privacy in other industry sectors, such as the FTC and state attorneys general. That

makes ongoing attention to this issue and action by the DOT essential to protect air travelers' privacy.

In light of this, we are particularly concerned by the lack of clear information provided to 

members of the public by the DOT, making clear the DOT's jurisdiction and procedures with respect to 

privacy violations by airlines, travel agencies, and computerized reservation systems.

Consumer privacy is not mentioned anywhere on the DOT website, complaint forms, or reports.

The DOT website provides no information on what sorts of privacy violations fall within its 

jurisdiction, how or to whom such violations can be reported, or how such complaints are handled.

We urge the ACACP to recommend that the Department add a “privacy” tab to the DOT aviation

consumer protection website and add privacy as a category in DOT complaint forms, logs, and reports. 

And we urge the Secretary of Transportation to act promptly to adopt and implement that 

recommendation. The DOT website should provide clear information on DOT jurisdiction, policies, 

and points of contact and procedures for complaints with respect to the privacy obligations and 

practices of airlines, travel agencies, and computerized reservation systems.

We also urge the ACACP to establish a permanent subcommittee or working group on consumer 

privacy, to ensure that the work of the DOT on this issue is reviewed on an ongoing basis and that 

further actions are recommended as necessary to protect air travelers' privacy. Among the issues for 

such a subcommittee or working group would be periodic review of DOT reports (once they begin to 

include privacy complaints and enforcement activities as a distinct reporting category), whether privacy

policies should be required to be included in airline conditions of carriage, and what structures for 

liaison and coordination with other agencies and departments (such as the FTC and DHS) can best 

facilitate investigation and enforcement action and avoid jurisdictional gaps in cases that implicate the 

jurisdiction of multiple agencies – as is likely where personal information related to air travel is 

commingled with data related to other travel services outside the jurisdiction of the DOT. 
We would welcome the opportunity to work with the ACACP, the DOT, and the air travel 

industry, and to share our experience and expertise in consumer privacy norms and best practices.

Sincerely,

Consumer Travel Alliance

7062 Solomon Seal Court

Springfield, VA 33152

(202) 713-9596

www.consumertravelalliance.org

Consumer Federation of America

1620 I St., NW, Ste. 200

Washington, DC 20006

(202) 387-6121

www.consumerfed.org

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse

3108 - 5th Ave., Ste. A

San Diego, CA 92103

(619) 298-3396

www.privacyrights.org

Privacy Times

PO Box 302

Cabin John, MD 20818

(301) 229-7002

www.privacytimes.com

Consumer Action

PO Box 70037

Washington, DC 20024

(202) 544-3088

www.consumer-action.org

Privacy Activism

PO Box 210376

San Francisco, CA 94121-0376 

www.privacyactivism.org

Electronic Privacy Information Center

1718 Connecticut Ave., NW, Ste. 200

Washington, DC 20009

(202) 483-1140

www.epic.org

National Network to End Domestic Violence

1400 - 16th St., NW, Ste. 330

Washington, DC 20036

(202) 543-5566

www.nnedv.org

Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights

PO Box 2658

Washington, DC 20013-2658

financialprivacy.org

National Workrights Institute

28 Stone Cliff Rd.

Princeton, NJ 08540

(609) 683-0313

www.workrights.us

World Privacy Forum

3108 Fifth Ave. , Suite B 

San Diego, CA 92013

(760) 712-4281

www.worldprivacyforum.org

American Civil Liberties Union

915 - 15th St. NW

Washington, D.C. 20005

(202) 715-0839

www.aclu.org
Edward Hasbrouck

(Travel author and consumer advocate)

1130 Treat Ave.

San Francisco, CA 94110

(415) 824-0214

www.hasbrouck.org

Remar Sutton

(Founder, Privacy Rights Now coalition)

PO Box 770033

Atlanta, GA 30357

www.remarsuttonassociates.com

Robert Ellis Smith

(Publisher, Privacy Journal)

PO Box 28577

Providence RI 02908

(401) 274-7861

www.privacyjournal.net

Kathryn A. Serkes

(Founder, Take Back Washington)

Seattle, WA

www.takebackwashington.org