Your Boarding Pass Contains a Lot of Personal Information: Destroy It
When you get home from your flight, you may be tempted to throw away your boarding pass. However, this document contains a lot of personal information about you, and some of it is not obvious. Chop it up instead.
As the security blog Krebs on Security notes, your boarding pass is a treasure trove of information. In text form, you usually type your first and last name, flight number and other details right on the pass. However, even if it doesn’t bother you, these barcodes contain even more information:
“In addition to his name, frequent flyer number and other [personal information], I was able to get his entry ID (aka the ‘key entry’ for the Lufthansa flight that he flew that day,” Corey said. “Then I proceeded to Lufthansa website and using his last name (which was encoded in the barcode) and the record locator was able to access his entire account.I could see not only this flight, but ANY future flights that were booked on his frequent Star Alliance flyer number. “
Of course, each airline has its own method of storing information in their boarding passes. Even without the encoded information, the data that is clearly visible on your boarding pass deserves to be destroyed. However, if you thought you weren’t worried about the information you see, it might be worth taking precautions about the information you don’t see.
What’s on the boarding pass barcode? Lots of | Krebs on safety via Boing Boing