Senators press TSA for passenger data-sharing details

Two key senators on Thursday called on the Homeland Security Department to fully disclose which airlines have provided passenger information to officials.

Maine Republican Susan Collins, chairwoman of the Governmental Affairs Committee, and the panel's ranking member Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., want the Transportation Security Administration to reveal which airlines responded to requests for passenger data.

Recent reports indicate that TSA obtained the data from JetBlue Airways and American Airlines.

"We are concerned by potential Privacy Act and other implications of this reported incident," the senators wrote in a letter to the department.

The senators also expressed concern that TSA told the General Accounting Office it did not have access to real passenger data in order to test a computer system for pre-screening airline passengers, yet American Airlines indicated that it provided more than 1 million passenger itineraries.