from Hacker News

Airlines Don't Want You to Know They Sold Your Flight Data to DHS

by walterbell on 6/11/25, 1:15 AM with 26 comments

• by dnissley on 6/11/25, 2:20 AM

  I go through TSA every time I fly where they scan my ID and boarding pass containing all of this data. You're telling me the government went and paid money for that data separately when it already had it?

• by rafram on 6/11/25, 3:44 AM

  Purchasing from data brokers in order to avoid getting a search warrant is just unambiguously against the Fourth Amendment, right? It’s amazing to me that this hasn’t been stopped by the courts.

• by chiefalchemist on 6/11/25, 2:19 AM

  Re: 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, according to internal CBP documents obtained by 404 Media.

  Irrelevant and pointless. If CBP had such data where else could it come from?

  Uncle Sam, who could legislate privacy protections, loves the fact there is so little protection. No need for legal channels and approvals when the data can be purchased directly or indirectly.

• by marssaxman on 6/11/25, 4:25 AM

  I assumed that was happening. I'm only surprised that DHS had to pay for it.

• by bgun on 6/11/25, 8:07 AM

  If you sell access to the data then buy it back, that basically lets you get it organized, formatted, and searchable for a fraction of the cost of developing and maintaining your own internal API’s, no?

  All it costs is your citizens’ privacy, which if we’re being honest was never a priority in the first place.

• by LorenPechtel on 6/11/25, 2:55 AM

  Honestly, I'm surprised.

  Sold, not simply handed over??

  I would assume the government knows any flight I take on a US carrier, and any flight I ticket in the US.

• by dorianjp on 6/11/25, 4:02 PM

  Hope they got a good rate for it at least, unlike the BS where car companies sold data for pennies to insurance companies on driver behaviour.