The SEC Buys a Database of One Billion Flight Records to Monitor Travelers

The SEC has purchased access to over one billion flight records to monitor global travel without a warrant. This acquisition, revealed on August 4 by 404 Media, demonstrates how a financial regulator can obtain a tracking tool through a commercial subscription, thereby circumventing traditional judicial procedures. The SEC subscribed to the Travel Intelligence Program, a service of the Airlines Reporting Corporation, which contains passenger information, including names, card numbers, departure and arrival cities, dates, and flight numbers. The coverage includes both domestic and international flights. Delta, United, and American have sold this data through ARC. Other agencies like the FBI and IRS also utilize this infrastructure. Although legal, this process raises concerns among civil liberties advocates, as it allows a government agency to bypass judicial protections by purchasing data that has already been commercialized. This episode raises concerns in the crypto ecosystem, which opposes this type of systematic tracking of financial movements. Financial privacy advocates emphasize that the transparency required of citizens is not reciprocated for federal agencies.

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