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Here's a new wrinkle in air travel

Cory Doctorow over at Boing Boing had an absolutely weird and slightly creepy request on a recent trip:

Last week on a trip from London to the US, American Airlines demanded that I write out a list of the names and addresses of all the friends I would be staying with in the USA. They claimed that this was due to a TSA regulation, but refused to state which regulation required them to gather this information, nor what they would do with it once they'd gathered it. I raised a stink, and was eventually told that I wouldn't have to give them the requested dossier because I was a Platinum AAdvantage Card holder (e.g., because I fly frequently with AA).

(For the full text, click here.) I can't think of any possible reason for this, can you? I know they asked us where we were staying on our recent trip to the British Virgin Islands, which is pretty standard, but collecting personal info about someone's friends seems a little off to me. Or am I missing something?

Update: Here's what he got back from the airlines.

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