by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 9:40 AM ET, Thu August 27, 2026
Two Democratic lawmakers have requested an investigation into the Department of Transportation’s inability to enforce airline passenger privacy laws, citing over 40 years of “widely-publicized privacy disasters impacting hundreds of millions of travelers.”
According to Reuters, lawmakers Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon and Representative Shontel Brown of Ohio have asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate the DOT for failing to hold airlines accountable for over 40 years of passenger privacy violations.
They sent a joint letter to the GAO, writing in part: “DOT’s abdication of its role as a privacy regulator has left the sensitive personal information of hundreds of millions of Americans exposed to corporate exploitation, warrantless government surveillance, and warrantless seizure of money and other property.
“In addition to harming the public, DOT’s regulatory inaction also potentially threatens national security. Travel data held by airlines and travel agencies may be of interest to foreign adversaries, who could exploit such information to track U.S. military, diplomatic, and other U.S. government personnel.”
One complaint is the Airline Reporting Corporation’s (ARC) collection of 722 million passenger travel records, which it held as a data broker collectively owned by major U.S. airlines without oversight, often selling passenger data to the Internal Revenue Service and Homeland Security without oversight or warrants.
ARC shut the program down in 2025, but the Department of Homeland Security has sought to replace the database for surveillance reasons.
DOT has been “reactive,” relying upon consumer complaints instead of “proactively auditing airlines’ privacy practices.” During the Biden Administration in 2024, Wyden partnered with the DOT to launch its first review of the nation’s 10 largest airlines, but the findings have not been published.
The lawmakers are requesting a few things from the GAO’s investigation, including the publication of the 2024 industry-wide review of airline privacy practices, identify how many people are in charge of privacy enforcement, review the coordination between DOT and the Department of Justice over airline employees selling passenger data to the Drug Enforcement Agency, evaluate whether the DOT investigated ARC’s sale of passenger records, assess the department’s insider threat mitigation and data governance and more.
Should an investigation go forward and find airlines guilty of violating passenger privacy, they may be subject to pay civil penalties; however, the Trump Administration has taken a more lenient approach to airline penalties, often waiving Biden-era fines and imposing smaller fines, such as the case with American Airlines’ historic $16.7 million fine for mishandling and damaging passengers’ mobility aids, including wheelchairs.
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.
Topics From This Article to Explore
