15 Jun 2025

Airlines Sell Passenger Flight Data to CBP

by Bonnie | | 0

Through FOIA requests and database searches, 404 Media revealed that the nation’s major airlines collected USA domestic flight data about passengers and sold access to it to Customs and Border Protection through a jointly owned data broker called Airlines Reporting Corporation.

The contract prohibits CBP from revealing where it got the data, which included travelers’ names, complete flight itineraries and financial payment information. It says CBP wants the data “to support federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to identify persons of interest’s US domestic air travel ticketing information.” The data involves both USA citizens and foreign nationals.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, another subset of the Department of Homeland Security, had already revealed it was purchasing such data.

Other federal agencies buying data from ARC include:

Air Force
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
Drug Enforcement Agency
Marshals Service
Secret Service
Securities and Exchange Commission
Transportation Security Administration

Buying the data skirts legal requirements that normally limit data collection to data that supports an investigation and ensure independent oversight.

ARC handles ticket settlement for more than 240 airlines. It contains data about air travel booked through ARC-accredited travel agencies, but not about air travel booked directly with airlines. It is owned by at least eight major USA airlines. Its board of directors has representatives from Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest, United, Germany’s Lufthansa, France’s Air France, and Canada’s Air Canada.

Click here for more details. (requires subscription)

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