The airlines sold you out

September 19, 2025

By Kim Komando

Let’s talk about something no one thinks about when booking a flight: where your travel info really goes.

An investigative bombshell from 404 Media just uncovered that the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), a company owned by the biggest U.S. airlines, has been giving federal agencies access to passenger records. 

No, I’m not talking about flagged terrorists. We’re talking 5 billion ticket records of everyday folks like you and me, completely searchable by the FBI, ICE, the Secret Service and more. Wow.

All without a warrant.

🧳 What they have about you

ARC isn’t a household name, but it processes bookings from over 12,800 travel agencies and 270 airlines. That includes your flight through Expedia, business trip from your company’s travel desk or miles you cashed in last summer.

The data includes your full name, payment method, dates and times of travel, full itinerary and who you traveled with. This info goes into a database that law enforcement can search instantly, no judge or subpoena required.

🤫 It gets worse

The contracts between ARC and these agencies reportedly forbid them from ever revealing ARC as the source of the data. So if your personal travel history helped trigger an investigation or was sold off, you’d never know how they got it.

It’s a direct runaround of the Fourth Amendment, which is supposed to protect you from this kind of unchecked surveillance.

🛡️ Fight back

If this made your stomach drop, you’re not alone. It’s the latest example of data brokers acting as secret surveillance partners. 

Once the government or any third party has access to your flight history, they can cross-reference it with everything else brokers collect. That includes your phone number, medical conditions, political party, driving history, jobs, online activity, purchase history, location data, who you’re related to and more. 

These companies build detailed dossiers on nearly every American, and they sell it to whoever pays, including agencies sidestepping the courts. Now, you can try to remove yourself from the 400+ data brokers. Good luck with that. I tried.

This is why Incogni (a sponsor of my radio show) matters so much. It’s the tool I use to force data brokers to delete my personal information. Incogni handles the legal requests and pushback automatically. 

You can get 60% off right now using promo code KIM60. If you buy, I don’t get any kickbacks or residuals.

Your digital footprint isn’t just online. Sometimes, it’s 36,000 feet in the air. And someone is always watching.