Data Broker It was owned by major airlines in the country, including Delta, American Airlines and United, and collected domestic flight records of US travelers and sold them to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and instructed CBP not to reveal where the data came from, according to internal CBP documents that part of the contract was obtained by 404 Media. The data includes passenger names, flight itinerary and financial details.
The CBP, part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), says this data is needed to support state and local police in a purchase that surprised civil liberty experts.
The document reveals in detail for the first time why at least some of the DHS purchased such information and why it comes after Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE). Unique details Purchase data. The document also shows for the first time that a data broker called the Airline Reporting Corporation (ARC) is telling government agencies, not to mention where they source flight data.
“Through a shady data broker called the Ark, the major airlines are selling most of the government’s access to confidential American information, revealing where they flew and the credit cards they used,” Senator Ron Wyden said in a statement.
ARC is owned and operated by at least eight major US airlines. The published document will be displayed. Company’s board of directors It includes representatives from Delta, Southwest, United, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, JetBlue, Luftanza and Air France of Europe, and Air Canada in Canada. More 240 airlines rely on Ark For ticket payment services.
Other business lines at ARC include being a conduit between the airline and the travel agent. Find travel trends Data with other companies, such as Expedia and fraud prevention, according to materials on ARC’s YouTube channel and website. The sale of travel information in US flyers to the government is part of ARC’s Travel Intelligence Program (TIP).
a Work statements contained in newly obtained documentsexplaining why agents are purchasing certain tools or capabilities, CBP says they need access to ARC’s TIP products “to support federal, state and local law enforcement agencies and identify interest-bearing US domestic travel ticket information.” 404 Media obtained the document through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
The new document obtained by 404 Media also states that the ARC asks CBP to not disclose the vendor or its employees or to not publish it as the source of the report unless the customer is forced by a valid court order or subpoena and the ARC is forced to immediately notify the same thing.
The working statement says that Tip can show the person’s paid intention to travel and tickets purchased through travel agents in the United States and its territory. Travel Intelligence Program (TIP) data provides “ticket information for eligible or domestic airline tickets and visibility into tickets obtained through travel agents in the United States and local areas.” They added that the data will be “important” in both administrative and criminal cases.
a DHS Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) available online TIP data is updated daily with ticket sales the previous day, saying it contains over 1 billion records across 39 months of past and future travel. The documentation says the hints can be searched by name, credit card or airline, but ARC contains data from ARC-authorized travel agents such as Expedia, rather than flights booked directly with the airline. “If a passenger purchases a ticket directly from the airline, searches made through ICE will not be shown in the ARC report,” Pia says. The PIA notes that data affects both the US and non-US. That is, it contains information about US citizens.
“Warrants are not required while acquiring data from domestic airlines, including many other transaction records and purchase records, but they are supposed to go through a legal process that restricts data collection to records that ensure independent surveillance and support investigations,” Jay Kraperke, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and Technical Security and Surveillance Projects, told 404 Media. “Like many other types of sensitive and revealing data, the government appears to be intending to use data brokers to purchase important guardrails and restrictions.”
According to the documents, CBP’s contract with ARC would begin in June 2024 and could be extended to 2029. CBP Contract 404 Media was a documented one. $11,025 transaction. Last Tuesday, the Public Procurement Database added an update of $6,847.50 to its contract. This states that it is exercising “Option 1 Year.” The document is edited but briefly mentions CBP’s OPR or the Office of Occupational Responsibility. Some investigate corruption by CBP employees.
