Airlines Don't Want You to Know They Sold Your Flight Data to DHS
a year ago
- #data_brokers
- #government_surveillance
- #privacy
- A data broker owned by major US airlines (Delta, American Airlines, United, etc.) collected and sold domestic flight records of US travelers to Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
- The data includes passenger names, flight itineraries, and financial details, used by CBP to track individuals of interest.
- The Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), the data broker, instructed CBP not to disclose the source of the data.
- ARC is owned by major airlines and provides services like ticket settlement, travel trend analysis, and fraud prevention.
- CBP's contract with ARC, starting in June 2024, allows access to ARC's Travel Intelligence Program (TIP) for law enforcement purposes.
- TIP data includes flight bookings through travel agencies but not direct airline bookings, updated daily with over a billion records.
- Privacy advocates criticize the government's use of data brokers to bypass legal oversight and bulk data collection.
- CBP claims the data is only used for investigations and follows privacy policies, but concerns remain about misuse.
- Senator Ron Wyden and others are pushing for oversight and reform to close the 'data broker loophole.'
- ARC recently introduced multifactor authentication on May 15, as per its website.