JetBlue Airways confirmed that it had provided 5 million passenger itineraries to a defense contractor as part of a program to “track down terrorists and other ‘high risk’ passengers,” New York Times reported.

The airline company violated its own privacy policies when it turned over the data to the contractor. The information received by Torch Concepts, an Army contractor in Huntsville, Ala., was used to identify the passengers’ Social Security numbers, income level, and other sensitive personal information.

JetBlue sent an e-mail message to passengers this week, admitting that it had made a mistake.

“This was a mistake on our part and I know you and many of our customers feel betrayed by it,” said David Neeleman, JetBlue’s chief executive, in an e-mail message. “The sole set of data in Torch’s possession has been destroyed,” Neeleman wrote. “No government agency ever had access to it.”

Privacy rights groups described the “privacy breach as among the most serious reported by any American company in recent years,” New York Times reported.

(via New York Times)