Privacy Policy & Data Options
Last Updated: February 12, 2025.
Index
- Transfer of Information
- Information Collection
- Use of Information
- Sharing of Information
- Information You Disclose Publicly or to Others
- Rapid Rewards®, Sweepstakes, Contests, and Surveys
- Advertising & Analytics Services and Online Tracking
- Social Features
- Refer-a-Friend
- Third Party Websites
- TSA Guidelines
- Touch ID
- Your Choices
- Personal Information Requests
- Children
- Data Security
- Changes to This Privacy Policy
- Contact Us
- Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
- Individuals from the European Economic Area, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom
This Privacy Policy describes how Southwest Airlines Co., P.O. Box 36647 TOP-1CR, Dallas, Texas 75235 ("Southwest," "Company," "we," or "us") collects, uses and shares information in connection with Southwest's services, systems, websites, and apps that refer or link to the Privacy Policy (collectively, the "Services"). See Section 20 for additional information for those outside the United States who use our Services. This Privacy Policy is not a contract and does not create any legal rights or obligations.
1. Transfer of Information
The information we collect from you may be transferred to, stored at, and processed in destinations outside of the country in which you are located, and may be accessible to the governments of such destinations. This includes processing by us, our affiliates, our third party payment processing companies and other third parties described in the Sharing of Information section below. It is our objective to take steps reasonably necessary to help secure your information and to treat your information that we have collected in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
Back to Top2. Information Collection
Information You Provide to Us
We collect information you provide directly to us. For example, we collect information when you use our Services, book travel, register for our Services or set up a Southwest account, SWABIZ® account, or Rapid Rewards® account, subscribe to our e-mails, mobile messages, or social media notifications, post on our forums or blogs, participate in the Rapid Rewards® Program, a sweepstakes, contest, promotion, survey, or poll, communicate with us via third party social media sites, shop our Services, order physical or digital gift cards, request customer support, apply for a job or otherwise communicate with us through the Services. We and our agents, vendors, and service providers may record, monitor, process, and retain communications and associated information, including emails, chats, calls, and texts. We may use chatbot technology and other automated methods of communication.
The types of information we may collect include Personal Information. "Personal Information" is information that could reasonably be linked with a particular individual or household, such as your first and last name, e-mail address, zip code, billing address, shipping address, phone number, payment card information, social media account information, travel preferences, birth date, redress number, and demographic information. “Personal Information” also may include sensitive information, such as present and future health status, and genetic or biometric information, to allow us to better serve your needs (for example, to assist you with boarding a flight if you need a wheelchair or with meeting safety requirements).
You may choose to voluntarily submit certain other information to us through the Services, including Personal Information, but you are solely responsible for the information that you submit to us.
If you apply for or inquire about employment with us, “Personal Information” may also include your education, occupation, employment history, and any other information submitted as part of your application or inquiry. This Privacy Policy is not intended to be a substitute for disclosure or authorization obligations regarding background checks, which may be required under the Fair Credit Reporting Act or similar laws. If we conduct a background check on you, at that time we will provide you with separate disclosure and authorization forms informing you of our intent to check your background, and requesting your consent to do so.
Back to TopInformation We Collect Automatically
We and our agents, vendors, and service providers automatically collect certain information from and about you when you access or use our Services. This information may include, without limitation, demographic information; IP address; browser/device/hardware type; operating system characteristics; information about your use of our Services; and data regarding network connected hardware (e.g., computer or mobile device), such as unique device identifiers, type, model, version, MAC address, device or session ID, error related data status, capability, confirmation, functionality, performance data, and connection type. This information may also include clickstream data, which is information about the page-by-page paths you take as you browse through the Services. We and our agents, vendors, and service providers may use session replay and other technologies to collect page interaction information and other electronic communications and content from your use of the Services (such as content entry, mouse movements, screen captures, the date, time, and location of your visit, what areas of the Services you visit and for how long, what search terms or other data you enter, and what content you view and click on), and methods used to browse away from the Services.
This information is gathered by certain tools and methods such as:
- Log Information: We and our agents, vendors, and service providers collect information about your use of our Services, such as the type of browser you use, access times, pages viewed, your IP address and the referring link through which you accessed our Services.
- Information Collected by Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies: We and our agents, vendors, and service providers may use cookies, web beacons (also known as "tracking pixels"), embedded scripts, location-identifying technologies, in-app tracking methods, and other tracking technologies to collect information about you when you interact with our Services or e-mails, including information about your browsing and purchasing behavior. We and our agents, vendors, and service providers may combine this information with other information about you and use it for various purposes, such as analyzing and improving our Services and your online experience, understanding which areas and features of our Services are popular, counting visits, understanding campaign effectiveness, tailoring communications with you, determining whether an e-mail has been opened and/or links within the e-mail have been clicked, and for other internal business purposes. Please note that, in accordance with local legal requirements, in some territories you will be presented with a notice which will contain more information about the technologies we use and provide you with a means to select and manage your preferences in addition to the options set out below.
- Cookies: Cookies are data files that are placed on a computer when it is used to visit a website. These cookies may be used for many purposes, including, without limitation, tracking user preferences or web pages visited while using our Services. Some web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually set your browser to remove or reject certain cookies. Please note that if you choose to remove or reject cookies, this could affect the availability and functionality of our Services. For example, cookies allow us and our agents, vendors, and service providers to store items in your cart between visits. In addition, please be aware that if you choose to block cookies, some preferences that are dependent on cookies may not be able to be respected.
- Web Beacons: We and our agents, vendors, and service providers may include small graphic images called web beacons, also known as "Internet tags" or "clear gifs," in our web pages and e-mail messages. We and our agents, vendors, and service providers may use web beacons or similar technologies for a number of purposes, including, without limitation, to count the number of visitors to our Service, to monitor how users navigate the Services, and to count how many e-mails that we sent were actually opened or how many particular articles or links were actually viewed.
- Embedded Scripts: An embedded script is programming code that is designed to collect information about your interactions with the Services. It is temporarily downloaded onto your computer from our web server or a third party with whom we work, is designed to be active only while you are connected to the Service, and deleted or deactivated thereafter.
- Location-identifying Technologies: We and our agents, vendors, and service providers may use GPS (global positioning systems) software and other location-based technologies to locate you so we may verify your location, and deliver relevant content to you based on your location. We may collect precise location information from your device.
- In-App Tracking Methods: There are a variety of tracking technologies that may be included in mobile applications, and these are not browser-based like cookies and cannot be controlled by browser settings. Some use device identifiers, or other identifiers such as “Ad IDs” to associate app user activity to a particular app.
Information we and our agents, vendors, and service providers automatically collect about you, such as how you interact with our Services, may be combined with your Personal Information. If we associate any such automatically-collected information with Personal Information about you, our objective will be to treat the combined information as Personal Information.
We and our business partners and other third parties may send you product promotions that are aligned with your purchase trends and/or interests identified through automatically-collected information.
Back to TopInformation We Collect From Our Partners and Other Sources
We may also obtain information about you (such as e-mail, address and employment history) from other sources and combine that with information we collect about you. If we receive Personal Information from a third party source and/or if we combine the information we receive from these third party sources with your Personal Information, our goal will be to treat that information as Personal Information. We are not responsible for the accuracy of the information provided by you or third parties or how such third parties collect, use and share such information.
We may obtain information from our partners and append it to our existing user information to better understand users’ interests and to provide more relevant content, including job listings and advertising.
We may append information about you that is publicly available or information that is aggregated and/or depersonalized including by partners. This information may include, for example, your travel preferences and activity, household income range, employment and education history, or postal code. This information may be associated with Personal Information as described herein, such as email address, physical address, first and last name combined, or phone number. We may use a third party vendor with whom we share your information to assist with this.
Back to Top3. Use of Information
We may use information about you for various purposes. Primary purposes for use of information include to:
- Facilitate, personalize, and improve your experience with our Services, including travel experience and your online or app experience;
- Process your registration with our Services, including verifying that your e-mail address(es) are active and valid and enrolling you in the Rapid Rewards® Program;
- Manage your profile(s) and online account(s), including purchases, orders, payments, returns, exchanges, and blog comments;
- Process and deliver frequent flyer points, sweepstakes, contest, promotion, and survey entries and rewards;
- Respond to your comments, questions and requests and provide customer service, including through the use of automated and machine learning technologies to assist us in our responses and customer service, including through the use of automated and machine learning technologies to assist us in our responses and customer service;
- Send you technical notices, updates, security alerts and support and administrative messages;
- Contact you regarding your use of our Service and, in our discretion, changes to our policies;
- Evaluate and process your application for employment, including using automated and machine learning technologies to assist us in analyzing, evaluating, and assessing applicants and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of manual human review and analysis; and
- Prevent fraudulent transactions and monitor against threats.
In addition, there may be secondary purposes for use of information, such as to:
- Create a usage profile of your preferences and provide advertisements, job descriptions, content or features that match your profile and interests, including through the use of automated and machine learning technologies;
- Communicate with you about products, services, offers, promotions, rewards and events (including those offered by third parties) and provide news and information we think will be of interest to you (for information about how to manage these communications, please see the Your Choices section below);
- Monitor and analyze trends, usage and activities, including through the use of automated and machine learning technologies;
- Link or combine with information we get from others to help understand your needs and provide you with better service;
- Improve our Services and other Southwest websites, applications, marketing efforts, products and services, including customer experience and our technologies
- Conduct research and analysis, including focus groups and surveys, on our Service and other Southwest websites, applications, products and services;
- Retarget across other sites (as described in the Advertising & Analytics Services and Online Tracking section below);
- Carry out any other purpose disclosed elsewhere in this Privacy Policy or at the time you provide your Personal Information; and
- Any other purpose, with your consent or as permitted or required by applicable law.
Whether a use is primary or secondary may change over time. Some of the information we collect for primary purposes may be used for secondary purposes.
Back to Top4. Sharing of Information
Our agents, vendors, consultants, and service providers have access to Personal Information to carry out work on our behalf.
We may also share information about you for other various purposes. In addition to carrying out work on our behalf, primary purposes for sharing of information include:
- With the Transportation and Security Administration (“TSA”) as legally permitted or required under the authority of 49 U.S.C. section 114, the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 and 49 C.F.R parts 1540 and 1560 and other applicable laws and regulations around the world;
- To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in response to (i) subpoenas or other legal process or if in our good faith opinion such disclosure is required or permitted by law; and/or (ii) at the request of governmental authorities conducting an investigation;
- To other airlines and their agents and service providers when your travel itinerary involves a flight operated by another airline;
- To defend the Terms & Conditions or other policies applicable to our Services;
- If we believe your actions are inconsistent with our user agreements or policies, or to protect the rights, property, life, health, security and safety of us or any third party;
- To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, we may also use IP addresses, mobile device identifiers or any other information we collect to identify users, and may do so in cooperation with copyright owners, Internet service providers, wireless service providers or law enforcement agencies in our discretion. Such disclosures may be carried out without notice to you;
- With our agents, vendors, and service providers for purposes of managing and fulfilling your travel reservations, product purchases, transportation services, activities, events, excursions, and Rapid Rewards® Program points. For example, we may share your information with our Rewards® Partners to help facilitate your purchase, transfer, or gift of Rapid Rewards® points.
- With our agents, vendors, and service providers to verify your address in order to ensure we maintain the accuracy of our database;
- With our affiliates for internal business purposes (including but not limited to managing your travel and/or accounts); and
- In connection with, or during negotiations of, any proposed or actual merger, purchase, sale (including a liquidation, realization, foreclosure or repossession), lease, amalgamation or any other type of acquisition of all or any portion of Southwest assets, financing, disposal, conveyance or transfer of all or a portion of our business to another company.
In addition, there may be secondary purposes for sharing of information, such as:
- With our business partners, affiliates and other third parties for purposes of sending their own marketing. For example, we may share your information with our financial institution Rewards® Partners for their direct marketing purposes, which may include, but is not limited to, marketing their co-branded credit cards to you;
- With third parties who conduct analytics or data appending (such as the process described above) in order for us to offer you more relevant products, services, job opportunities and information;
- For a purpose disclosed elsewhere in this Privacy Policy, or at the time you provide your Personal Information. For example, if you link your account to a corporate travel account, we may share Personal Information with your company’s travel administrators and other personnel; and
- With your consent or at your direction or as required or permitted by applicable law.
Whether sharing is primary or secondary may change over time. Some of the information we share under primary purposes may be shared for secondary purposes.
In our sole discretion, we may also share aggregated or de-identified information that cannot reasonably be used to identify you with third parties or affiliates.
Back to Top5. Information You Disclose Publicly or to Others
The Services may permit you to submit ideas, photographs, user profiles, writings, music, video, audio recordings, computer graphics, pictures, data, questions, comments, suggestions or other content, including Personal Information (collectively, “User Content”), such as on blogs and forums, and in association with your account and user profile. We or others may store, display, reproduce, publish, distribute or otherwise use User Content online or offline in any media or format (currently existing or hereafter developed) and may or may not attribute it to you. Others may have access to this User Content and may have the ability to share it with third parties. Please think carefully before deciding what information you share, including Personal Information, in connection with your User Content. Please note that Southwest does not control who will have access to the information that you choose to make public, and cannot ensure that parties who have access to such publicly available information will respect your privacy or keep it secure. We are not responsible for the privacy or security of any information that you make publicly available on the Services or what others do with information you share with them on the Services. We are not responsible for the accuracy, use or misuse of any User Content that you disclose or receive from third parties through the Services. We are not responsible for User Content you submit to third party services via our Services.
Back to Top6. Rapid Rewards®, Sweepstakes, Contests, and Surveys
We may offer you the opportunity to participate in our Rapid Rewards® Program, sweepstakes, contests, surveys, and other promotions (each, a “Promotion”) that may require registration or for you to submit Personal Information through the Services. Participation in these Promotions is completely voluntary. If you choose to enter a Promotion, your Personal Information may be disclosed to third parties in connection with the administration of such Promotion, such as in connection with winner selection, prize fulfillment, and as required by law, such as on a winners list. By entering a Promotion, you are agreeing to the official rules that govern that Promotion, which may contain specific requirements of you, including, except where prohibited by law, allowing the sponsor and/or other parties to use your name, voice and/or likeness in advertising or marketing materials. Southwest may offer opportunities to enter a Promotion or other feature that we offer jointly with a third party. As a result of your participation in such feature, your information may be shared with the third party that is jointly offering the feature.
Back to Top7. Advertising & Analytics Services and Online Tracking
We engage third parties to serve advertisements across the Internet and to provide analytics about the use of our Services. In addition, we may participate in online advertising networks and exchanges that display relevant advertisements to our Services visitors based on their interests as reflected in their browsing of the Service and certain third party sites participating in the same networks and exchanges. These entities may use cookies, web beacons, pixels, embedded scripts, and other technologies to collect information about your use of the Service, such as your IP address, web browser, pages viewed, time spent on pages, links clicked and conversion information. This information may be used by us and others to, among other things, analyze and track data, determine the popularity of certain content, deliver advertising and content targeted to your interests on the Services and other websites and better understand your online activity. Data collected from a particular browser or device may be used with another computer or device that is linked to the browser or device on which such data was collected, or transferred to a non-affiliate for such purposes.
This means that some information about your browsing of the Service and certain third party sites may be shared with these companies for the purpose of delivering ads to you on the Services and certain third party sites, and Southwest may receive from some of these companies information about third party sites that you have visited. This information is used for marketing purposes and the practice is sometimes termed "retargeting" to indicate that information from one retailer is used to suggest to you relevant products offered by another retailer.
These and other third parties may also collect Personal Information about your online activities over time and across different websites when you use our Service.
We may also work with third parties to serve ads to you as part of a customized campaign on other websites or platforms.
This Privacy Policy does not cover any use of information that such third parties themselves may have collected from you (e.g., type of browser, operating system, domain name, day and time of visit, page(s) visited) or the methods used by the third-parties to collect that information (e.g., cookies, web beacons and clear gifs).
Please note that, in accordance with local legal requirements, in some territories you will be presented with a notice which will contain more information about the technologies we use and provide you with a means to select and manage your preferences in addition to the options below; in those territories, you may also click the icon on the bottom of the Southwest website or app to access the preference center. Note that your browser settings may also allow you to automatically transmit a “Do Not Track” signal to websites and online services you visit. Like many websites and online services, Southwest currently does not alter its practices when it receives a “Do Not Track” signal from a visitor’s browser. To find out more about “Do Not Track,” you may wish to visit http://www.allaboutdnt.com.
Certain advertising networks and exchanges may participate in the US Digital Advertising Alliance ("DAA") AdChoices Program and may display an Advertising Option Icon for interest-based ads. You can learn more about the DAA AdChoices Program at http://www.youradchoices.com. The DAA also offers a tool for opting out of the collection of cross-app data on a mobile device for interest-based advertising. To exercise choice for companies participating in this tool, download the AppChoice app at http://youradchoices.com/appchoices.
In addition, certain advertising networks and exchanges may participate in the US Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”). NAI has developed a tool that allows consumers to opt out of targeted advertising delivered by NAI members' ad networks. To learn more about opting out of targeted advertising or to use the tool, visit http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/. We are not responsible for effectiveness of, or compliance with, any third-parties’ opt out options or programs or the accuracy of their statements regarding their programs. Choices you make are both browser and device-specific and your preferences are deleted whenever you clear your cookies or browser’s cache.
Southwest also has a specific marketing platform that uses persistent cookies. Click this link to opt out from our marketing platform’s persistent cookies (please note that if you delete your cookies or switch to a different browser you will have to repeat this procedure). Please be aware that, even if you are able to opt out of certain kinds of targeted advertising, you will continue to receive generic ads.
Back to Top8. Social Features
Certain functionality on the Services is specifically designed to permit interactions that you initiate between the Service and third party websites or services, including third party social networks (“Social Features”). Examples of Social Features include enabling you to transmit content to the Service from your account on a third party website or service; to “like” or “share” our Services content to other websites or services; to log-in to the Services using your username and password for a third party site or service; and to otherwise connect our Services to a third party website or service.
If you choose to use Social Features, information you post or provide access to, including User Content, may be publicly displayed on our Services or by the provider of the Social Feature that you use. Similarly, if you post information on a third party platform that references our Services (e.g., by using a hashtag associated with Southwest in a tweet or status update), your post may be published on our Service in accordance with the terms of the third party website or service. Also, both Southwest and the third party may have access to certain information about you and your use of our Services and the third party site or service. In addition, we may receive information about you if other users of a third party website give us access to their profiles and you are one of their “connections,” or information about you is otherwise accessible through your “connections” web pages, profile pages, or similar pages on a social networking or other third party website or interactive service.
The information we collect in connection with Social Features is subject to this Privacy Policy. The information collected and stored by the third parties remains subject to those third parties’ privacy practices, including whether the third parties continue to share information with us, the types of information shared, and your choices with regard to what is visible to others on those third party websites or services.
Back to Top9. Refer-a-Friend
You may use a referral feature, if we make it available to you in your territory, to inform a friend about our services. Southwest may use any e-mail address provided when using this referral feature to send a single e-mail to such designated recipients about products, services, offers, promotions, rewards and events and provide news and information we think will be of interest to such designated recipients. By using a referral feature, you represent that you have permission to provide your friend’s email address. Southwest will not be responsible for the accuracy of the information you provide.
Back to Top10. Third Party Websites
The Services contain hyperlinks to other websites or locations that we do not control and are operated and controlled by third parties ("Third Party Websites"). We make no representations regarding the policies or business practices of such Third Party Websites and encourage you to familiarize yourself with their privacy policies before providing them with your Personal Information. Our Privacy Policy does not apply to these Third Party Websites. You should read the privacy policy of each Third Party Website as these Third Party Websites may use their own cookies, web beacons and other technology to independently collect information about you. In addition, these Third Party Websites may solicit Personal Information from you.
Back to Top11. TSA Guidelines
The Transportation Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security requires us to collect information from you for purposes of watch list screening, under the authority of 49 U.S.C. section 114, and the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. Providing this information is voluntary; however, if it is not provided, you may be subject to additional screening or denied transport or authorization to enter a sterile area. TSA may share information you provide with law enforcement or intelligence agencies or others under its published system of records notice. For more on TSA Privacy policies, or to view the system of records notice and the privacy impact assessment, please see TSA's Web site at www.tsa.gov.
Back to Top12. Touch ID
If you use the Service through an Apple, Inc. (“Apple”) Device or an Android/Google Device, we may offer Face ID/Touch ID or Face Unlock/Fingerprint Unlock for such devices as an alternative log-in method to password. We are only notified as to whether the authentication was successful and cannot access the Face ID or Touch ID nor the Face Unlock or Fingerprint Unlock or the data associated with the use of such capabilities. For more details, see Apple’s iOS Security Guide at: https://www.apple.com/business/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf; see Google/Android’s Security Guide at https://source.android.com/security.
Back to Top13. Your Choices
Profile and Apps
You are responsible for maintaining the accuracy of the information you submit to us, such as your contact information provided as part of registration. The Services may allow you to access, review, correct, update, and remove or make inaccessible Personal Information you have provided through the Services’ registration or otherwise, and you may provide registration updates and changes by logging into your Southwest account, SWABIZ® account, or Rapid Rewards® account, or contacting us by phone, e-mail, or postal mail as detailed here.
With respect to our mobile and other applications, you can prospectively stop all collection of information by the application by uninstalling the application. Also, you may at any time restrict our access to your location data by adjusting the permissions in your mobile device.
It is our objective to make good faith efforts to make requested changes in our then-active databases as soon as reasonably practicable (but we may retain prior information as business records). Please note that it is not always possible to completely remove or delete all of your information from our databases and that residual data may remain on backup media or for other reasons.
Promotional Communications
You can opt out of receiving promotional e-mail communications from us at any time by following the instructions provided in those communications or e-mail us as detailed here. If you receive promotional text messages from us, you may opt out of the applicable text messaging program by replying “STOP” to a promotional text message you receive.
As a Southwest customer, Southwest account holder, SWABIZ®, or Rapid Rewards® Member, or user of the Services, you may also receive periodic promotional postal mailings from Southwest Airlines and/or our select marketing partners. If you do not wish to receive such promotional mailings, you may opt out at any time by following the instructions provided in those mailings or e-mail us as detailed here.
Please note that even if you opt out of receiving promotional emails, text messages or other communications, we and our agents, vendors, and service providers may continue to send you non-promotional e-mails, non-promotional text messages and other types of communications, as permitted by law, such as those about our ongoing business relations. For example, we and our agents, vendors, and service providers may send e-mails and other communications that contain service-related announcements that affect your account, confirmations and updates regarding reservations you have made, requests for feedback on our services and/or your specific travel experiences, information about your job application or responses to your comments and feedback submitted to us and our agents, vendors, and service providers.
Southwest mobile applications may send you notifications that may include alerts, sounds, and icon badges. These push notifications or in-app messages may include both operational messages and promotional messages regarding products, services and offers that may be of interest to you. Push notifications and other alerts can be configured in settings on your mobile device. As with e-mails, even if you opt out of receiving promotional communications, we may continue to send you non-promotional push notifications and other alerts, such as those about your use of the applications or our ongoing business relations.
Back to Top14. Personal Information Requests
You may make the following requests with respect to your Personal Information: request a copy of the Personal Information we have collected about you; request that we delete Personal Information that we have about you, subject to several exceptions; request that we correct inaccurate Personal Information we maintain about you, subject to certain exceptions; request that we not share your Personal Information with third parties for certain behavioral or targeted advertising purposes; and request that we not sell your Personal Information to third parties for valuable consideration.
Note that if you would like to opt-out of cookie-based tracking for behaviorally targeted advertising purposes, you will need to separately adjust your browser settings, opt out at https://optout.aboutads.info/, and otherwise set your preferences as described in Section 7. Keep in mind that your cookie and tracking tools choices are typically website, device, and browser specific, and may be deleted if you clear your browser's cache.
Our policy does not permit discrimination against you for making such a request. To make a Personal Information request, click here or call us at 1-800-435-9792. The web forms and phone number are not intended to be used for general submission of complaints or comments. For such inquiries, please visit the Help Center page on Southwest.com for Customer Service options.
Please note that we may deny your request, or fulfill a request only in part, based on our legal rights and obligations. For example, we may retain Personal Information as permitted by law, such as for tax or other record keeping purposes, to maintain an active account, and to process transactions and facilitate customer requests. If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your Personal Information request and would like to request further review, you may submit an appeal request from within the portal account that was provided to you as part of the Personal Information request process or send an email to Southwest.Privacy@wnco.com with “Personal Information Requests Appeal” in the subject line. We intend to take reasonable steps to verify your identity prior to responding to your requests. The verification steps will vary depending on the sensitivity of the Personal Information and whether you have an account with us. If you designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf, please ensure the authorized agent is identified as an authorized agent.
The Personal Information requests under this Section do not apply to information about job applicants, employees and other employment affiliates. Southwest employees, directors, officers, contractors, interns, job applicants and designated beneficiaries that are California residents can submit certain requests regarding their Personal Information processed in the employment context by clicking here or by calling us at 1-800-435-9792.
Back to Top15. Children
Our Services are not intended for and are not targeted to children under the age of sixteen (16). If you are a child under the age of sixteen (16), you are not permitted to use the Services and should not send any information about yourself to us through the Services.
We do not knowingly collect any personal information from children under the age of sixteen (16) and, if we learn that we have received information from a user under the age of 13, we will delete this information in accordance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”). If you are a parent or guardian and you believe that your child under the age of 13, has provided us with personal information without COPPA-required consent, please contact us by e-mail as detailed here.
If you have registered to use the Services, and have posted content or information on the Services, you can request that such information be removed from the Services by contacting us by e-mail as detailed here or by sending a letter to Southwest Airlines Co., P.O. Box 36647 TOP-1CR, Dallas, Texas 75235 (Attention: Legal Counsel), stating that you personally posted such content or information and detailing where the content or information is posted. We will make reasonable good faith efforts to endeavor to remove the post from prospective public view or anonymize it so the minor cannot be individually identified. This removal process cannot ensure complete or comprehensive removal. For instance, third parties may have republished the post and archived copies of it may be stored by search engines and others that we do not control.
Back to Top16. Data Security
It is our goal to take reasonable measures to help protect information about you from loss, theft, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. Although Southwest’s objective is to use reasonable efforts to help protect your information, transmission via the Internet is not completely secure and Southwest cannot guarantee the security of your information collected through our Services. Further, you are responsible for protecting your password.
Back to Top17. Changes to This Privacy Policy
Southwest reserves the right to change this Privacy Policy and its practices from time to time consistent with applicable privacy laws and principles. If we make changes to this Privacy Policy we will notify you by revising the date at the top of this Privacy Policy, and in some cases, we may choose to provide you with additional notice (such as adding a statement to the homepages of our Services or sending you an e-mail notification). If the changes are material, we may provide you additional notice.
Back to Top18. Contact Us
If you have any questions, complaints, or suggestions regarding this Privacy Policy, our data practices, or your rights, please feel free to contact us by phone, e-mail, or postal mail as detailed here. You may also contact us by visiting the Help Center page on Southwest.com for Customer Service options.
Back to Top19. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
Back to Top20. Individuals from the European Economic Area, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom
This Section of the Privacy Policy only applies to those who use our Services and are in a country that is a Member State of the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland. To the extent that Southwest is subject to the laws of the European Economic Area, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom when processing Personal Information, Southwest shall be a “data controller” under such laws.
The law in Europe requires us to have legal basis for collecting and using your Personal Information. Where applicable, we rely on one or more of the following legal bases:
- Performance of a contract with you: Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
- Legitimate interests: We may use your Personal Information where it is necessary to conduct our business and pursue our legitimate interests, for example to prevent fraud and enable us to give you the best and most secure customer experience. We consider and balance any potential impact on you and your rights (both positive and negative) before we process your Personal Information for our legitimate interests.
- To protect vital interest of you or another person: We may use your Personal Information to prevent harm, ensure safety, or respond to emergencies where necessary.
- Legal obligation: We may use your Personal Information where it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation that we are subject to.
- Consent: We rely on consent only where we have obtained your active agreement to use your Personal Information for a specified purpose, for example if you subscribe to an email newsletter or given your explicit consent by providing us with sensitive health information to manage special assistance requests.
Whenever we transfer your Personal Information out of your country to countries which have laws that do not provide the same level of data protection as your home country, a similar degree of protection is afforded to it using the following safeguards if applicable:
- Standard contractual terms approved for use such as those approved by the Swiss, European Union and UK and other applicable regulators for enabling transfers.
- Adequacy decision made by a home state meaning the country to whom the information is transferred to has been determined to afford an equivalent level of protection to the EU/UK or other territory as applicable.
We will retain your Personal Information for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your Personal Information for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.
To determine the appropriate retention period for Personal Information, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the Personal Information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your Personal Information, the purposes for which we process your Personal Information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.
In Europe, you have the right to:
- Request access to your Personal Information (commonly known as a "subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the Personal Information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
- Request correction of the Personal Information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
- Request erasure of your Personal Information in certain circumstances. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove Personal Information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your Personal Information where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your Personal Information to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons, which we will notify you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
- Object to processing of your Personal Information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) as the legal basis for that particular use of your data (including carrying out profiling based on our legitimate interests). In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your Personal Information which override your right to object.
- Request the transfer of your Personal Information to you or to a third party. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
- Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your Personal Information. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.
- Request restriction of processing of your Personal Information.
- Complain to the relevant data protection authority.
- Not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning you.
To exercise your rights under this Section, email us at Southwest.Privacy@wnco.com , click here, or call us at 1-800-435-9792.
You will not have to pay a fee to access your Personal Information or to exercise any of the other rights in this Section. However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive, or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your Personal Information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that Personal Information is not disclosed to an unauthorized person. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
We try to respond to all legitimate requests under this Section within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.
Note that if you would like to opt-out of cookie-based tracking for behaviorally targeted advertising purposes, you will need to separately adjust your browser settings and otherwise set your preferences as described in Section 7.
Please note that we may deny your request, or fulfill a request only in part, based on our legal rights and obligations. For example, we may retain Personal Information as permitted by law, such as for tax or other record keeping purposes, to maintain an active account, and to process transactions and facilitate customer requests. If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your Personal Information request and would like to request further review, you may submit an appeal request from within the portal account that was provided to you as part of the Personal Information request process or send an email to Southwest.Privacy@wnco.com with “Personal Information Requests Appeal” in the subject line.
Pursuant to local data protection laws, Southwest has appointed representatives in the European Economic Area and United Kingdom who can be contacted with questions about how we process Personal Information in those markets. For more information, please contact SWA.EUrep@datarologie.com (European Economic Area queries) or SWA.UKrep@datarologie.com (United Kingdom queries). Our Data Protection Officer can be contacted by emailing Southwest.Privacy@wnco.com with the subject line “DPO”.
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