What Next: TBD | Airlines Are Selling Your Data to the Government

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4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

ARC, the data broker owned by the country’s major airlines, has been selling domestic flight data in the US to Customs and Border Protection. But in the contract, they told CBP not to reveal where the data was from… why? Guest: Joseph Cox, co-founder of 404 Media and the co-host of the 404 Media Podcast. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:15.0	Something terrible happened last summer,
0:17.0	and I have no memory of what or who hurt me.
0:20.0	No one in my family will tell me. When you're
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1:02.6	In a few weeks, I'm going to get on a plane with my family. We'll take some time to see
1:07.3	grandparents, go on a little vacation and have some beach time. And I know
1:12.7	that when I get on that flight, the airline will have a lot of information about me. And so will
1:18.7	TSA. That makes sense. But according to Joseph Cox at 404 Media, my information could also be sold to
1:26.5	customs and Border Protection.
1:28.7	So what we found through records that we've requested through DHS, Customs and Border
	...

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