Southwest Airlines Publicly Tweeted a Passenger's Personal Flight Number—and Then Doubled Down

Is a passenger's flight number private information?

https://gizmodo.com/southwest-airlines- ... 1837111810

Lol the lady was "forced to hide in a bathroom for 45 minutes because someone could be waiting for me." WTF kind of sensationalism is that. The last place anyone could be kidnapped is the airport. You would have to be an absolute moron to even try anything like that.

Now Southwest should not be putting that info on social media but come on. Absolutely over the top sensationalism. My generation is so sadly sensitive.

If you have to hide for 45 minutes in an airport john to prevent someone from kidnapping you, you've got bigger problems than Southwest tweeting out a flight number.

Oh I love this, seriously I do. More of the, Oh my I'm offended by..... Ms. Singh is upset since the Twitter world knew her flight number. According to the article, her full name is not on her Twitter handle. Oh WAIT FOR IT, now that Ms. Singh has gone public we know her full name, the name of her company, that she founded the company, and the company address. So, Ms.Singh is upset about a flight number, however, we now know much more about her? She has no issue with this last part?

WTXJET wrote:

Oh I love this, seriously I do. More of the, Oh my I'm offended by..... Ms. Singh is upset since the Twitter world knew her flight number. According to the article, her full name is not on her Twitter handle. Oh WAIT FOR IT, now that Ms. Singh has gone public we know her full name, the name of her company, that she founded the company, and the company address. So, Ms.Singh is upset about a flight number, however, we now know much more about her? She has no issue with this last part?

LOL, exactly. Your post is brilliant.

WTXJET wrote:

Oh I love this, seriously I do. More of the, Oh my I'm offended by..... Ms. Singh is upset since the Twitter world knew her flight number. According to the article, her full name is not on her Twitter handle. Oh WAIT FOR IT, now that Ms. Singh has gone public we know her full name, the name of her company, that she founded the company, and the company address. So, Ms.Singh is upset about a flight number, however, we now know much more about her? She has no issue with this last part?

None of that is the same as location information that was brought up by somebody else.

WN732 wrote:

. The last place anyone could be kidnapped is the airport. You would have to be an absolute moron to even try anything like that.

Kidnappings are known to happen at airports, by governments or certain type of criminal organizations..
https://nypost.com/2018/05/22/security- ... i-airport/
https://www.foxnews.com/travel/woman-ar ... ta-airport
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/busi ... -risk.html
https://www.cnn.com/2012/08/01/travel/m ... index.html

While I do not know the full extent of the tweets sent. What is the extent to which someone running Southwest's social media (presumably a relatively low-level Customer Service or PR employee) information to have access to?

910A

I suspect that these organisations have their own sources of information.

It's not rocket science. Using her first name and the name of her company proudly displayed on her Twitter profile, I was able to figure out her real full name in 10 seconds of googling. Using that, I have to believe even the most basic of access to the reservation system allows them to look up passengers by their full name and what their itinerary is.

Now, Tweeting her flight number probably wasn't the brightest of moves, but I don't believe she was ever in any sort of danger because of it. She's not a household name nor a celebrity. 99.9999999% of people wouldn't know her if they saw her in the gate area or walking down the concourse. She's doing this for attention which is what she got.

paranoia will destroy ya

I don’t understand people’s obsession with privacy.

Mboyle1988 wrote:

I don’t understand people’s obsession with privacy.

I don’t understand people’s obsession with giving up/lack of privacy

STLflyer wrote:

If you have to hide for 45 minutes in an airport john to prevent someone from kidnapping you, you've got bigger problems than Southwest tweeting out a flight number.

Land of the free™

A flight number isn’t considered PII. A record locator could be, however, which is why airlines engaging with customers via social media will insist those be shared via DM only.

EA CO AS wrote:

A flight number isn’t considered PII. A record locator could be, however, which is why airlines engaging with customers via social media will insist those be shared via DM only.

A flight number tells you exactly when and where to find a specific person though. And that was announced publicly.

GoSharks wrote:

EA CO AS wrote:

A flight number isn’t considered PII. A record locator could be, however, which is why airlines engaging with customers via social media will insist those be shared via DM only.

A flight number tells you exactly when and where to find a specific person though. And that was announced publicly.

When did context become such a rarity? Is proportionate reaction no longer a thing?

WN732 wrote:

Lol the lady was "forced to hide in a bathroom for 45 minutes because someone could be waiting for me." WTF kind of sensationalism is that. The last place anyone could be kidnapped is the airport. You would have to be an absolute moron to even try anything like that.

Now Southwest should not be putting that info on social media but come on. Absolutely over the top sensationalism. My generation is so sadly sensitive.

To be fair a flight attendant for AA did save a girl from a human trafficker on a flight

GoSharks wrote:

EA CO AS wrote:

A flight number isn’t considered PII. A record locator could be, however, which is why airlines engaging with customers via social media will insist those be shared via DM only.

A flight number tells you exactly when and where to find a specific person though. And that was announced publicly.

Only when specifically paired with a date and city pairs, such as how a through flight with the same number can operate XXX-YYY-ZZZ.

Flight number won’t do much. Who cares

SWA flight numbers don't mean squat as a majority of them are multi stop thru flights. 1 SWA flight number can have anywhere from 1 to 5 cities past the first stop. Adults need to grow up and stop trying to get free money for BS they didn't earn. The complaint was about a dumb FA so send SWA an email as you don't need immediate attention of the company..as if the company can't look back into the past and see who worked what.

FriscoHeavy wrote:

Mboyle1988 wrote:

I don’t understand people’s obsession with privacy.

I don’t understand people’s obsession with giving up/lack of privacy

I agree with you. Alexa, Google does not need to know whats going on in MY house.

EA CO AS wrote:

A flight number isn’t considered PII. A record locator could be, however, which is why airlines engaging with customers via social media will insist those be shared via DM only.

She obviously posted about it on her own twitter account. With all her personal info on it. So I smell someone expanding on an issue to get a big check ! And the minute she did that she showed she is not in fear, afraid or had any reason to hid in the bathroom. So NO MONEY.

GoSharks wrote:

EA CO AS wrote:

A flight number isn’t considered PII. A record locator could be, however, which is why airlines engaging with customers via social media will insist those be shared via DM only.

A flight number tells you exactly when and where to find a specific person though. And that was announced publicly.

Yes and in Phoenix she could come into the main Airside of the terminal from 2 locations on the southwest side or go over the connector from South side to North side T4 and come out on one of Americans checkpoints. Slipping right past them. Are they going to man all the exits to kidnap her. Are they going to wait at the baggage claim, if she checked a bag. To many holes for her supposed issue.

commpilot wrote:

SWA flight numbers don't mean squat as a majority of them are multi stop thru flights. 1 SWA flight number can have anywhere from 1 to 5 cities past the first stop. Adults need to grow up and stop trying to get free money for BS they didn't earn. The complaint was about a dumb FA so send SWA an email as you don't need immediate attention of the company..as if the company can't look back into the past and see who worked what.

Actually every log in to any site by an employee in an office is fully traceable down to time & employee log in numbers. Last week several who were not logging into the daily chat & streaming videos on the system got a surprise list of every site they went too and what days they skipped daily required site log ins. Do you really think you boss does not know what you did from a computer yo have to log into with custom number and password/s ?

Planes4you wrote:

WN732 wrote:

Lol the lady was "forced to hide in a bathroom for 45 minutes because someone could be waiting for me." WTF kind of sensationalism is that. The last place anyone could be kidnapped is the airport. You would have to be an absolute moron to even try anything like that.

Now Southwest should not be putting that info on social media but come on. Absolutely over the top sensationalism. My generation is so sadly sensitive.

To be fair a flight attendant for AA did save a girl from a human trafficker on a flight

Yes, the FA did but not by a twitter or online post. She was paying attention.

rbavfan wrote:

commpilot wrote:

SWA flight numbers don't mean squat as a majority of them are multi stop thru flights. 1 SWA flight number can have anywhere from 1 to 5 cities past the first stop. Adults need to grow up and stop trying to get free money for BS they didn't earn. The complaint was about a dumb FA so send SWA an email as you don't need immediate attention of the company..as if the company can't look back into the past and see who worked what.

Actually every log in to any site by an employee in an office is fully traceable down to time & employee log in numbers. Last week several who were not logging into the daily chat & streaming videos on the system got a surprise list of every site they went too and what days they skipped daily required site log ins. Do you really think you boss does not know what you did from a computer yo have to log into with custom number and password/s ?

I ask to what that matters, corporate IT security, when this is about relating a single flight number to a twitter handle. Re-read my response. It has nothing to do with the SWA twitter response, but the fussy passenger.

commpilot wrote:

rbavfan wrote:

commpilot wrote:

SWA flight numbers don't mean squat as a majority of them are multi stop thru flights. 1 SWA flight number can have anywhere from 1 to 5 cities past the first stop. Adults need to grow up and stop trying to get free money for BS they didn't earn. The complaint was about a dumb FA so send SWA an email as you don't need immediate attention of the company..as if the company can't look back into the past and see who worked what.

Actually every log in to any site by an employee in an office is fully traceable down to time & employee log in numbers. Last week several who were not logging into the daily chat & streaming videos on the system got a surprise list of every site they went too and what days they skipped daily required site log ins. Do you really think you boss does not know what you did from a computer yo have to log into with custom number and password/s ?

I ask to what that matters, corporate IT security, when this is about relating a single flight number to a twitter handle. Re-read my response. It has nothing to do with the SWA twitter response, but the fussy passenger.

Sorry mis red tha end of the last line. And yes the pssenger is going over the top. Maybe just trying to boost a business thats faulturing. Cause boy they all know what her business is now.