My JetBlue stock is still holding steady at $59, so their little privacy oops doesn’t seem to have hurt them too badly .. yet. But the news just won’t die. Wired keeps hammering on the story, other media are picking it up, lawsuits have been filed, and federal agencies are investigating.
There are some ironic aspects to this story (I can laugh, because it wasn’t my data that got abused, and I’m still looking at a nice stock appreciation). I had to laugh at Wired‘s observation that most airlines don’t plan to change their privacy policies, even though they are weaker than JetBlue’s. Well, DUH! If JetBlue does get in trouble with the gummint, it will ironically be because of the strength of their privacy policy, which they boast is the best in the industry, not because of its weakness. According to privacy laws, there ain’t nothing wrong with doing what JetBlue did, as long as you tell your customers you’re gonna do it. JetBlue’s in trouble because they said they wouldn’t, then they did. If they had a weaker policy, they wouldn’t be in legal trouble (although customers might still be pissed). If you have a strong privacy policy, you gotta follow it. If you keep it weak, life is easy.
But the whole incident leaves some doubt about the competence of JetBlue management. If I don’t unload my stock, I think I’ll need to keep an eye on it, because I’m not sure these kids know what they’re doing yet. Obviously, the decision to hand over customer data in violation of their own policies was a big boo-boo, even if it was a well-intentioned one. You gotta wonder how something like this went down. A decision like this should have been reviewed by a bunch of people in management, including their legal eagles. If it wasn’t, they have a control problem. And if it was reviewed, and they did it anyway, then they have a whole passel of idiots minding the store.
And, after the boo-boo itself, their PR was all wrong. They finally got it right, with an apology on their website. But their first reaction was to stonewall and cover up. Although they may not have made any statements that were actually false, they tried to mislead a lot of people with carefully worded statements that danced around the truth. Any PR expert (at least any good one) will tell you that your best strategy in any crisis is honesty and open disclosure; lying just gets you in deeper. JetBlue seems to have figured this out now, but it took them a while. Will they remember the next time they have any kind of PR crisis (which is a possibility any airline faces), and deal with it honestly from the git-go, or will they hedge and hem and haw again?
Realistically, I don’t think the lawsuits will have much effect on their bottom line, unless the resulting publicity erodes their customer base. While their customers are justifiably pissed off, it’s going to be hard to claim any real financial damage. I’d guess that they’ll end up settling with a few million in legal fees for the lawyers, and the customers will get a letter of apology and an offer of $25 off of their next flight. That’s the way a lot of class action suits go. I had one of those exploding Chevy trucks (mine didn’t explode), and I got a coupon for $200 off of a new truck, but only if I bought within the next 2 years; and I think the attorneys got 8 or 9 figures.