US airlines selling passenger travel data to Customs and Border Patrol

A new report has revealed that a data broker owned by major US airlines sold passenger information to the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The documents obtained by 404 Media through a Freedom of Information Act revealed that the purchase of the information was intended to support law enforcement’s work in identifying persons of interest.

The purchase was detailed in a contract with Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), which is a data broker collectively owned by at least eight major US airlines, and its board of directors includes representatives from American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Delta, Southwest, United, and other major airline companies. At least 240 airline companies rely on ARC for ticket settlement services.

At the center of the data being sold is ARC’s Travell Intelligence Program (TIP), which CBP said it needed access to "to support federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to identify persons of interest’s U.S. domestic air travel ticketing information," a Statement of Work obtained by the outlet read. Data from TIP will provided "visibility on a subject’s or person of interest’s domestic air travel ticketing information as well as tickets acquired through travel agencies in the U.S. and its territories," the documents stated, and the data was described as "critical" for both administrative and criminal cases.

The document also requested that CBP "not publicly identify vendor, or its employees, individually or collectively, as the source of the Reports unless the Customer is compelled to do so by a valid court order or subpoena and gives ARC immediate notice of same." The contract began in June 2024 and runs potentially through 2029, however, the outlet said that information released earlier in June stated that "it was exercising 'Option Year 1,' meaning it was extending the contract."

TIP is updated daily with ticket sales from the day before and contains more than one billion records over 39 past and future months of travel and covers both US and non-US citizens.

A CBP spokesperson told 404 Media, "CBP is committed to protecting individuals’ privacy during the execution of its mission to protect the American people, safeguard our borders, and enhance the nation’s economic prosperity. CBP follows a robust privacy policy as we protect the homeland through the air, land and maritime environments against illegal entry, illicit activity or other threats to national sovereignty and economic security."

The CBP said that the data is only used when its Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) opens an investigation and needs to locate someone related to that investigation.

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) told 404 Media, "The big airlines—through a shady data broker that they own called ARC—are selling the government bulk access to Americans' sensitive information, revealing where they fly and the credit card they used." He later added, "ARC has refused to answer oversight questions from Congress, so I have already contacted the major airlines that own ARC—like Delta, American Airlines and United—to find out why they gave the green light to sell their customers' data to the government."