Several major U.S. airlines, including American, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest, and United, have quietly provided the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with extensive passenger data.
This data includes travel itineraries and payment information, supporting a little-known surveillance program, as detailed in recent court documents.
According to a report from WIRED, these revelations emerged from a federal lawsuit filed by the watchdog group The Brennan Center for Justice. The lawsuit accuses the DHS of expanding a program called the Quiet Skies initiative without proper public disclosure or legal authority. This program, managed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), monitors travelers classified as “unknown threats,” which includes U.S. citizens.
Your Flight Data for Sale
Major U.S. airlines, through an industry-owned data broker, are selling passenger flight information to the Department of Homeland Security without public knowledge.
The Secret Data Pipeline
Data from flights booked via third-party travel agencies is collected by an airline-owned corporation and sold to government agencies through the ‘Travel Intelligence Program’.
Passenger
Books a flight
Travel Agency
(e.g., Expedia)
Airlines Reporting Corp. (ARC)
Airline-owned data broker
DHS Agencies
(CBP, ICE)
Airlines Involved
Several major carriers have representatives on the board of ARC, the data broker at the center of the arrangement.
What Data is at Risk?
The database provides government analysts with extensive personal and travel information.
- 👤Full Passenger Name
Your identity - ✈️Complete Flight Itineraries
Past, present, and future travel - 💳Financial Details
Credit card numbers used for booking - 📍Travel Dates & Locations
Where you go and when
The Scale of Surveillance
The Travel Intelligence Program provides access to a vast and continuously updated repository of traveler data.
1 Billion+
Total Flight Records
39 Months
of Travel History
Daily
Database Updates
Chart is for illustrative purposes to compare data points mentioned in reports.
A Potential Privacy Loophole
According to reports, this specific data sharing arrangement through ARC currently only includes tickets purchased from third-party travel agencies. Booking directly on an airline’s official website may prevent your data from being included in this particular database.
Court filings indicate that the data shared included detailed travel histories, ticket purchases, seating assignments, and baggage details—information that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) does not typically receive. According to the filings, airlines provided this data voluntarily and without informing passengers.
Privacy advocates have raised serious concerns about transparency, oversight, and consent, arguing that the Quiet Skies program has been in operation for years with minimal public scrutiny and little evidence of its effectiveness.
While the DHS defends the program as a means to identify suspicious travel patterns and enhance national security, critics argue that it lacks accountability and functions in a legal gray area.
Most of the airlines mentioned in the lawsuit have declined to comment, and the DHS has not confirmed the duration of this data-sharing practice or the number of affected passengers.
This case underscores the ongoing tensions between national security measures and individual privacy rights, especially in light of expanded government surveillance programs following the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001.
