Airlines sell passenger flight data to Customs and Border Protection

While there are laws in the U.S. to protect some of your privacy from direct government surveillance, agencies make use of a loophole that allows the purchase of data from brokers. For 404 Media, Joseph Cox reports on one such broker, the Airlines Reporting Corporation, that is owned by the major airlines.

The Statement of Work says that TIP can show a person’s paid intent to travel and tickets purchased through travel agencies in the U.S. and its territories. The data from the Travel Intelligence Program (TIP) will provide “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 say. They add this data will be “crucial” in both administrative and criminal cases.