Lawmakers have called out the IRS for accessing a massive database of American citizens’ travel records without a warrant, according to a bipartisan letter shared with 305 Media. The data, sold by a data broker co-owned by major airlines, allows government agencies to bypass legal requirements like search warrants or court orders. The information includes details such as when and where individuals flew, as well as the credit cards they used. This has raised significant questions about privacy and government overreach in accessing sensitive personal information.
Major airlines including Delta, United Airlines, American Airlines, and Southwest are among the companies that have co-owned the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), the data broker that sells access to this information. The revelation that the IRS purchased the data without proper legal review has sparked concerns about the potential misuse of personal data. Lawmakers have urged the airlines to shut down the data-selling program, a move that ARC has now confirmed is already in the works. The letter addressed to nine major airlines highlights the need for greater oversight and accountability in how government agencies access personal information through commercial data sources.
The case of the IRS accessing data without a warrant is seen as the clearest example yet of how government agencies can exploit commercially available data to access sensitive personal information without legal oversight. The lawmakers are now pushing for reforms to ensure that such access is properly regulated and that individuals’ privacy rights are protected. This incident has raised broader concerns about the balance between national security and individual privacy, as well as the role of private companies in facilitating government surveillance.