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Clark Worked For Ark. Data FirmAcxiom Role Part of Surveillance Debate By Robert O'Harrow Jr. Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, September 27, 2003; Page A08Retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark helped an Arkansas information company win a contract to assist development of an airline passenger screening system, one of the largest surveillance programs ever devised by the government. Starting just after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, Clark sought out dozens of government and industry officials on behalf of Acxiom Corp., a data powerhouse that maintains names, addresses and a wide array of personal details about nearly every adult in the...

Little Rock’s Acxiom Corp. has spent most of the two years since the attacks of Sept. 11 looking for government contracts to help fight the war on terror. It has found the contracts. Now it has a fight on its hands. The data-management company is involved in a growing dispute over the release of information on millions of airline passengers to a Defense Department contractor last year. Acxiom sold that contractor demographic data on roughly 2 million airline passengers — about 40 percent of those involved — as part of its role in the war on terror. As a...

LITTLE ROCK (AP) -- Acxiom Corp. didn't violate anyone's privacy rights when it gave information it accumulated on thousands of airline passengers to an Alabama company that was preparing an anti-terrorism study for the Defense Department, an Acxiom spokesman said Tuesday. The Little Rock-based data management company said it followed "applicable laws" and its own privacy policy in doing business with Torch Concepts of Huntsville, Ala. Torch Concepts produced the study, "Homeland Security: Airline Passenger Risk Assessment," with information from Acxiom and JetBlue Airways Corp. at Queens, N.Y. The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a nonprofit privacy group, filed a...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A group of passengers has sued JetBlue Airways Corp. for passing their personal information to a Defense Department contractor. The suit, filed Monday, follows JetBlue's acknowledgment last week that, in violation of its own privacy policy, it had given information from about 5 million passenger records to Torch Concepts of Huntsville, Ala. Torch produced a study, "Homeland Security: Airline Passenger Risk Assessment," that was purported to help the government improve military base security. The class-action lawsuit, filed in Utah's 3rd District Court, alleges fraudulent misrepresentation, breach of contract and invasion of privacy. Also on...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 — Two federal agencies announced today that they had opened investigations into JetBlue Airways in response to the airline's admission that it had provided travel records on more than a million passengers to a Pentagon contractor, violating its own privacy rules. The moves by the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Trade Commission came as JetBlue disclosed that it had hired Deloitte & Touche, the accounting firm, to review the company's privacy policies and determine if they needed to be revamped. The fast-growing three-year-old airline, which is based in New York and has worked to...

Before the Federal Trade Commission Washington, DC In the Matter of JetBlue Airways Corporation and Acxiom Corporation.Complaint and Request for Injunction, Investigation and for Other Relief INTRODUCTION1. This complaint concerns the privacy practices of JetBlue Airways Corporation and Acxiom Corporation. As set forth in detail below, JetBlue Airways Corporation and Acxiom Corporation have engaged in deceptive trade practices affecting commerce by disclosing consumer personal information to Torch Concepts Inc., an information mining company with its principal place of business in Huntsville, Alabama, in violation of 15 U.S.C. § 45(a)(1). JetBlue Airways Corporation and Acxiom Corporation engaged in these activities...

Wesley Clark, the former Army General who announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on Sept. 17, has not given up his board memberships, according to published accounts. Since retiring from the military in 2000, Clark has held a variety of industrial positions, including jobs with a Washington, DC-based technology firm, an investment company, and director or advisor positions with six other organizations. In most cases he was brought on board to assist with military or government contracts. One such company is Acxiom Corp., the Little Rock, AR-based data firm. Clark joined Acxiom in December 2001, and played a...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 19 — JetBlue Airways acknowledged publicly today that it had provided a Pentagon contractor with information on more than one million of its passengers as part of a program to track down terrorists and other "high risk" passengers. That data, which was turned over in violation of the airline's own privacy policies, was then used to identify the passengers' Social Security numbers, financial histories and occupations. JetBlue, a three-year-old discount airline, sent an e-mail message to passengers this week, conceding that it had made a mistake in providing the records last year to Torch Concepts, an Army...

Retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark, the Little Rock native and former NATO supreme allied commander in Europe, has resigned as managing director of merchant banking for the Stephens Group Inc. of Little Rock effective Friday, a company spokesman confirmed. "He told several of us that his first assignment would be to Kuwait City for CNN," Stephens spokesman Frank Thomas said. "It was a very amicable parting, very comfortable." Clark couldn't be reached for comment Friday morning. He joined Stephens in July 2000, the same month he retired from the Army. He serves on the boards of directors of Acxiom...

WASHINGTON - Retired Gen. Wesley Clark will participate in the Democratic presidential debate next week, party officials said Thursday. Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Debra DeShong said Clark's campaign confirmed that he will be at the party's debate on economic issues next Thursday in New York City. Clark was scheduled to give a paid speech on Thursday, the day the nine other candidates were scheduled to participate in the debate that will be broadcast live on CNBC. His aides had said he may have to miss the debate to honor his commitment. He was criticized by rival campaigns, who said Clark...