SEC Bought a Billion Airline Records to Track Travelers—Likely Without a Warrant

In brief

• SEC documents obtained by 404 Media show the agency subscribed to Airlines Reporting Corporation's Travel Intelligence Program, which held over one billion ticket records.
• The data included names, credit card numbers, routes, and an alert system that flagged new bookings by people the agency was monitoring — likely without a warrant.
• ARC, co-owned by Delta, United, and American, sold the data until lawmaker pressure forced a shutdown in 2025.

The Securities and Exchange Commission bought access to a worldwide airline ticketing database holding more than one billion records, according to SEC documents obtained by 404 Media through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The data came from Airlines Reporting Corporation, a clearinghouse co-owned by American, Delta, and United that sits between carriers and travel agencies, and resold bookings made through sites like Expedia and Kayak.

The records held passengers' names, the credit cards used to buy tickets, departure and arrival cities, and flight numbers. More than that, the SEC's subscription included an alert system that checked new bookings against a list of people it was monitoring, flagging travel from the prior 24 hours, with the agency requesting between one and 25 of these alerts a day.