Airline-Owned Data Broker Sells Flight Info To DHS

June 26, 2025 Business, Immigration

404 Media reports:

The Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), a data broker owned by the country’s major airlines which sells travellers’ detailed flight records in bulk to the government, only just registered as a data broker with the state of California, which is a legal requirement, despite selling such data for years, according to records maintained by the California Privacy Protection Agency.

The news comes after 404 Media recently reported that ARC included a clause in its contract barring Customs and Border Protection (CBP), one of its many government customers, from revealing where the data came from. ARC is owned by airlines including Delta, American Airlines, and United.

“It sure looks like ARC has been in violation of California’s data broker law—it’s been selling airline customers’ data for years without registering,” Senator Ron Wyden told 404 Media in a statement.

Read the full article.

Airline-Owned Data Broker Selling Your Flight Info to DHS Finally Registers as a Data Broker

🔗 https://t.co/mjoNBT6rLh https://t.co/mjoNBT6rLh

— 404 Media (@404mediaco) June 26, 2025

An airline-owned data broker collected US travelers’ flight records, sold them to Customs and Border Protection, and then as part of the contract told CBP to not reveal where the data came from, according to a contract obtained by 404 Media.https://t.co/Sx4o5ZyC0I

— WIRED (@WIRED) June 15, 2025