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.orgEdward 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