Delta, United Airlines Cause Furor With New Practice

Delta, American, and United Airlines have sparked a furor due to a new report about their alleged data practices.

404 Media, with support from WIRED, made the revelation in a June 10 story.

"A data broker owned by the country’s major airlines, including Delta, American Airlines, and United, collected U.S. travellers’ domestic flight records, sold access to them to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and then as part of the contract told CBP to not reveal where the data came from," the site reported.

404 Media explained that the story was primarily reported by filing public record requests; the project started in 2024, the site wrote.

According to the report, CPB, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, “says it needs this data to support state and local police to track people of interest’s air travel across the country,” but that’s “alarmed civil liberties experts.”

People unloaded on X over the report. "The surveillance state driven by profit. How American can you get?" wrote one person with a string of angry emojis.

Another person tagged United Airlines on X and wrote, "@united is this true?!? You DO NOT have my permission."

"Big Brother is alive and well. 1984 2.0," wrote another person.

"And this is why I ride @Amtrak," concluded another person. 

"Upsetting," wrote another person, joining others who unloaded on the airlines on social media.

The story says the data broker is called Airlines Reporting Corporation.

“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,” U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon said in a statement printed by 404Media and WIRED.

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement document obtained by the publications says, "ARC is owned and operated by eight U.S. major airlines and is the sole entity facilitating financial transactions between the airline industry and U.S.-based travel agencies. ARC is uniquely positioned within the airline industry as the central hub for financial settlement and data exchange between airlines and travel agencies, ensuring secure and efficient transactions."

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