Emirates fined $208,890 in Italy over passenger data handling

The Italian data protection authority has fined Emirates €180,000 (($208,890)) for the improper handling of health data belonging to passengers with reduced mobility.

The Core Issues Identified by the Regulator were lack of Transparency as Emirates failed to provide clear, complete privacy information to passengers both on its website and through staff assisting them—when collecting health information

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Italy's data protection authority said on Wednesday it had fined the Emirates airlines for allegedly unfair handling of sensitive data.

The case stemmed from a complaint by a passenger who said Emirates had made her fill in a medical form even though she was not among the categories required to submit such documentation.

The Italian regulator found that the processing of health data itself was lawful as necessary to guarantee safe transport and ‌assistance, but identified breaches on transparency and data storage limits.

The authority said Emirates failed to provide sufficiently clear and complete privacy information, either on its website or through staff assisting passengers.

It also found that the airline retained health data collected via medical forms for seven years, which it considered excessive and disproportionate.

Emirates has not yet responded to the matter.