Tuesday’s class ended with a discussion of involuntary data collection, or the process by which organizations gather information on individuals without expressed permission. Thinking of my upcoming spring break trip, I argued that airlines participate in this form of data collection without explicitly letting customers know. A November 2013 Wall Street Journal article on the subject notes the numerous pieces of data airlines obtain from travelers: American Airlines informs gate agents about past traveling history and frequent flyer status, JetBlue informs crew members about birthdays, and British Airways allows flight attendants to write comments about traveler behavior, including fear of flying. This involuntary data collection shouldn’t be surprising. We often provide our personal information to companies in exchange for some benefit, including airline miles, elite status, and a more personalized experience- as outlined by the WSJ article. Airlines are the big fish in this example; we have minimal power in keeping our data from them.
Growing technology-and easier access to data-has recently created a flip flop in this hierarchy: now, the customer can involuntarily mine data on the airline. Aktarer Zamen, a 22 year-old entrepreneur, faced lawsuits by United Airlines and Orbitz Travel in December after the two large companies outlined objections surrounding his site, Skiplagged.com. Skiplagged plays upon airlines’ use of supply and demand. Flights do not necessarily increase in price as distance increases. For example, a flight from Nashville to Boston with a layover in Atlanta may be cheaper than just taking the first flight from Nashville to Atlanta. Skiplagged would find this discrepancy and tell a customer traveling to Atlanta to book through Boston but not board the second flight. Zamen’s website mines airline data to, like the airlines who work to “personalize the flying experience” (WSJ), “help travelers” receive the best possible product (CNN). Whereas airlines mine the customer’s data, Skiplagged serves as an example of a customer mining the airlines’ data.
Airlines clearly stand aware of how powerful the data they mine from customers must be. If they weren’t, there would be no reason for them to be afraid of Skiplagged and other startups that mine data on them. In the future, airlines and large travel sites may not be the only fish mining data in the travel pond.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304384104579139923818792360
http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/29/news/united-orbitz-sue-skiplagged-22/index.html