More good news

More and more personal data is being attached to airline reservations, leading to a huge potential for not only abuse of individual rights but for sophisticated identity theft.

... using the frequent flyer number on his boarding pass stub, without typing in a password, [we] were given full access to all his personal details - including his passport number, the date it expired, his nationality... and his date of birth. The system even allowed us to change the information.

Using this information and surfing publicly available databases, we were able - within 15 minutes - to find out where Broer lived, who lived there with him, where he worked, which universities he had attended and even how much his house was worth when he bought it two years ago.

Be careful where you drop your boarding pass stubs, and be wary of government assurances about the need for TSA intrusions and ever-expanding databases.

(via Rebecca's Pocket)