Huh: Airlines Are Secretly Selling Passenger Data To Government?!?

I’m not usually one to be paranoid about my data with various companies, since I’ve kind of given up on the concept of thinking there’s any privacy in the world. Even so, this sure feels to me like it crosses some line, no?

Airlines are brokering our data to the government

View from the Wing flags a 404 Media investigation, about how airlines are secretly selling our data to the government, but don’t want us to know.

To start, let me of course mention that there’s some information the government automatically gets access to when we travel by air. When we book a flight that touches the United States, we have to provide our Secure Flight data, which includes our name, date of birth, gender, etc. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has access to that, though the records are ordinarily only retained for seven days after travel.

As it turns out, there’s information being shared in another way as well, according to an investigation. The Airline Reporting Corporation is owned by several large airlines. On the surface, the company provides ticket transaction settlement services between airlines, travel agencies, and travel management companies, that sell their products in the United States.

As it turns out, the company is also selling passenger data to Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The contract between The Airline Reporting Corporation and the CBP specifically stipulates that the government can’t admit where it got that data.

The CBP pays for this data to “support federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to identify persons of interest,” and this includes sharing passenger names, full domestic flight itineraries, payment details, and more. Since all reservation details are made available, that means the government even knows everything from your meal preferences, to your preferred seats.

There are reportedly around one billion records searchable, by name, credit card, airline, etc., and it applies to roughly 39 months of travel history, plus upcoming bookings. One interesting quirk is that the data captured is limited to bookings made through travel agencies, and not those made directly with airlines.

The CBP claims that this data is only used during open investigations, and claims it adheres to strict privacy policies. For some reason, I don’t find that to be so reassuring, when the information is being obtained in the first place under the condition that the source isn’t revealed.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but…?

As I said at the beginning of the post, I generally don’t assume that I have much privacy with my data. Of course airlines reserve the right to use your data in certain ways, though I think that most of us assumed that they weren’t actively secretly selling this data to the government?

Ultimately I don’t have much to hide, so this doesn’t concern me, personally. I mean, maybe the government will figure out that I generally order vegetarian or fish dishes, over meat. The horror!

However, I think the part that makes me slightly uneasy is that this agreement literally stipulates that the government can’t even reveal where it got this information, which sure suggests that various parties realize that what they’re doing might not be very well received. So it’s the attempted secrecy here that concerns me.

I’m curious, when the government is paying for this information, do we think this means they’re just paying a small amount that covers the fee of accessing this, or is the company actually making a material amount of money from this venture? What incentive do airlines have to cooperate in this way?

In all honesty, this won’t impact any of my behavior, it’s just an interesting thing to know about, as I hadn’t assumed this was happening. I suppose for those who are very concerned about their data, this is an added incentive to book directly with airlines, as that avoids this data being shared.

Bottom line

An investigation has revealed that The Airline Reporting Corporation is reportedly selling our airline data to the government. The government has access to roughly a billion records, covering 39 months of travel history, plus future bookings.

While we knew that the government had access to some of our travel details via Secure Flight details, this is a concerning level of information sharing, if you ask me.

What do you make of this revelation about passenger data being sold to the government?