The SEC airline ticketing data purchase reportedly gave the securities regulator access to booking records covering domestic U.S. travel, flights to and from the United States, and trips wholly between or inside foreign countries. The records were not a live map of aircraft movements. They were ticketing data, with enough identifying and itinerary information to make that distinction more than academic.
According to documents obtained by 404 Media through a Freedom of Information Act request, the Securities and Exchange Commission bought access to more than one billion records from Airlines Reporting Corporation, or ARC. 404 Media said the SEC did not respond to a request for comment.
ARC acts as an intermediary between airlines and travel agencies. When a traveler books through an agency or an online service such as Expedia or Kayak, ARC receives booking information and resells data through its Travel Intelligence Program, 404 Media reported. That does not establish that ARC holds every airline booking. Earlier reporting on Department of Homeland Security use of the product said tickets bought directly from an airline would not appear in ARC reports.
What did the SEC airline ticketing data include?
The SEC documents described records containing a passenger name, the credit-card number used to purchase the ticket, departure and arrival cities, flight date, flight number, and the selling agency, according to 404 Media. “Selling agency” appears to mean the travel agency involved in the booking.
The reported arrangement also included an alert function. ARC could provide daily results for names on a specified list, and the SEC required access to between one and 25 daily searches through that service, the documents said.
That is a search-and-alert system built on ticket purchases, rather than real-time surveillance of planes or a confirmed ability to trace every passenger worldwide. A purchased ticket can show intended travel; the material reviewed by 404 Media does not say the SEC received aircraft telemetry, boarding confirmation, or live location data.
What remains unknown about the SEC arrangement?
The available records do not state why the SEC sought the data, the price it paid, when the contract began or ended, whether the access remains active, or what retention and oversight rules applied. They also do not identify the legal process used for individual searches.
The SEC purchase is separate from earlier reporting on DHS agencies. 404 Media previously reported that Customs and Border Protection bought ARC access for domestic ticketing information, saying it would support federal, state, and local law-enforcement work involving people of interest. Those records do not show that CBP and the SEC received the same coverage, contract terms, or tools.
ARC has said its Travel Intelligence Program was created after the September 11, 2001 attacks and has supported U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement work involving national security and criminal activity. That is the company’s account of the program’s purpose, not a disclosed explanation from the SEC for its own purchase.
The new documents add a regulator to the list of government customers reported to have used ARC’s data. They leave the operational questions, including what the SEC searched for and under what limits, unanswered.
This story draws on original reporting from 404 Media.
