this post was submitted on 10 May 2025
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A massive aviation industry clearinghouse that processes data for twelve billion passenger flights per year is selling that information to the Trump administration amid the White House’s new immigration crackdown, according to documents reviewed by the Lever.

The data — including “full flight itineraries, passenger name records, and financial details, which are otherwise difficult or impossible to obtain” for past and future flights — is fed into a secretive government intelligence operation called the Travel Intelligence Program and provided to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agencies, records reveal.

Details of this program were outlined in procurement documents released Wednesday by ICE, which is a division of the Department of Homeland Security.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

Everyone is stealing your data and selling it. Feeding it into AI. Building profiles on you to better send you ads.

Yes. Literally every company. There's no regulation so to them it's free money.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I drive everywhere. Yeah, I know, fuck cars. But honestly they're tracking everyone's movement. Have you noticed all of the intersection cameras that have popped up everywhere? Fuck the authoritarian surveillance state.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They don’t need cameras. Your phone is constantly connecting to cell towers and broadcasting its unique identifier. Those towers keep a record of who has connected. So long as your in range of 3 or more towers they can triangulate your location.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

True but I don't like having my phone on me when I don't want to be reachable. Sometimes it's turned off at home.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 20 hours ago

That is a skill that more of us could use. Myself included

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago

Intersection cameras, license plate readers, face scanning. Expect some or all of it everytime you get behind the wheel.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You got one of those dongles, like State Farm's Drive Safe and Save program? Carry a cell phone? You're still being tracked.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 20 hours ago

No dongle, and I don't always carry my phone. I get nonstop work calls, sometimes I turn it off and leave it.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 day ago

Jesus... well, avoid flying trough US if possible.

[–] [email protected] 97 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Nice racket. First you pay the airlines for their tickets, then the ICE with your tax dollars to buy your data from said airlines.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

Fuck.

Great point. We need to be able to see the interconnections of this more often.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Soon they will be taking Americans to their death, too, and I assume no one will do fucking shit as usual.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Did Germans do shit about Hitler? Nope, it was the rest of the world. And, well, one German who did shit about Hitler.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

Too bad he didn’t act sooner.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago

It’s just the TIP of the ICEberg.

[–] [email protected] 176 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

The company is jointly owned by nine major airlines, most of which are US-based: Delta, Southwest, United, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, JetBlue, Air Canada, Lufthansa, and Air France.

I hope EU starts some investigation, because it doesn't seem this follows the GDPR for European travelers.

[–] [email protected] 87 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Lufthansa and Air France might have some massive fines incoming.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Maximum GDPR fine is 4% of your revenue. For Lufthansa, that would be ~$1.4 billion, Air France ~$650 million, both of which are roughly their entire net income for one year.

Not sure if anyone has been hit with the maximum ever though, as everyone just keeps track of the dollars and not percentage of revenue.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

AFAIK no one has triggered the biggest fines (yet?). Can't wait for it to happen.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I think the biggest one by value is Meta with €1.2b. Although their revenue is in the $150b+ range, so not maxed out.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

They better, why tf is Air France collaborating with these ICEholes?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

Air Canada

Wtf Air Canada? Air France too

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Assuming the data doesn't include international departures or arrivals (only their domestic counterparts), would GDPR even apply?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think it applies to eu citizens worldwide for online purposes. You only need to do business in eu with eu clients (seperate terms) for it to apply.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Yea, I guess because they are "selling" vs being compensated for? If the US govt dictates terms to that business under homeland security, GDPR probably wouldn't matter, but I can only assume since it's a sale, that's not the case.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 2 days ago

IBM supplied Nazis with the machines and punch cards to track the population. Throwing that out there for no particular reason. What where we talking about?

[–] [email protected] 38 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Cue the airlines come with hand-wringing to beg the Feds for more bailouts because "nobody is flying anymore."

Parasitical business practices should lead to market exit.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

As long as programs like 5-Eyes exist you just have to assume every time you interact with a company it is in the hands of all of the governments.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

But useful idiots on lemmy keep telling me it's china doing all the surveillance through companies.

[–] [email protected] 107 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Can we get the courts to determine that as an "unreasonable search" already?

[–] [email protected] 47 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Yeah so bad news. The government has routinely purchased data like this as an end run around the 4th Amendment. The data is collected by a third party, often with the customers "consent".

This is why we need stricter privacy controls around our data. The fact that this data was collated in the first place is problematic. The fact that it's being sold for profit is abhorrent.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 days ago (3 children)

The mental trick that keeps on giving. When government does it - it's automatically bad, but when a private business does it - it's between the business and its customers. Then all the gov't needs to do is become a customer on the B2B side.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago

The fact that it's being sold for profit is abhorrent.

Not even just profit now, but literally for the furtherance of the cruelty and suffering being dispensed by ICE

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The same courts that the government routinely ignores, and that has a sham, corrupt supreme court at it's head? Yeah, good luck with that, unfortunately.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Still it’s good to get it on record. Either the court is compromised, or gives good rationale, or ice is in breach. At this point it’s stilll a question.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago

Flock operates thier ALPR cameras the same way. They own the data but will happily hand it over to law enforcement. Cities are contracting with Flock to install the network of ALPRs.

If we had cops on the street recording everyone's license plate as they drove by I'm sure a savvy lawyer could argue successfully that it's an illegal search. Somehow, when a private company does it and makes the database accessible it's not?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

No you will have to physically do it yourself (a a group). Law is dead.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

Do foreign airlines that come into the country do this? Would an EU plane be safe from this bullshit?

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 days ago (7 children)

Since when does a government agency have to pay for receiving a companies data? I guess there is no law for allowing ICE to access that data, and then they just pay instead?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Since always, without a subpoena. Until PRISM, at least.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 days ago (2 children)

If I had to guess, obtaining the data by force may require a court order or legal process.

Buying data that someone else is willingly selling bypasses those steps.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Yeah that's one of the things that stood out as what the hell.. the companies already have the data, if ICE wanted it legally they shouldn't need to pay... Really shows how shady they're being.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'd think that they already have that due to the TSA.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 days ago

Can't wait to read about the Palintir FAA merger

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