Lawsuit Claims Delta’s Mobile App Violates Privacy

The California attorney general’s office has sued Delta for violating the state’s online privacy law. According to a report from the AP, California brought the lawsuit because Delta does not display a privacy policy with its app, failing to provide warning that it uses the app to collect sensitive data from customers.

California’s Online Privacy Protection Act requires companies to release a privacy policy, and to give users the opportunity to read that policy before downloading any apps, whenever collecting personal information from users. According to the AP, California is the only state with this kind of policy.

The Delta app collects users’ names, phone numbers, email addresses, mailing address, birth dates, and credit card information. Yet customers receive no privacy warnings before downloading or using the app, which can be utilized to check in for flights, manage reservations, or book checked baggage.

The airline could face fines of as much as much as $2,500 for each downloaded app—and the app has already been downloaded millions of times.

In a statement, a Delta spokesperson declined to comment on pending litigation. But Attorney General Kamala Harris, who filed the lawsuit, had this to say: “California law is clear that mobile apps collecting personal information need privacy policies, and that the users of those apps deserve to know what is being done with their personal information.”

Have you downloaded the Delta app? Are you concerned that the airline collected your personal information without posting a privacy policy?

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