By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Aug 26 (Reuters) – Two Democratic U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday asked a congressional watchdog agency to investigate the Transportation Department’s failure to ensure privacy of airline passengers.
Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Shontel Brown asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate USDOT, saying it has never brought any enforcement cases tied to passenger data for over 40 years “despite numerous widely-publicized privacy disasters impacting hundreds of millions of travelers.”
A GAO spokesperson confirmed it has received the request and would determine how to respond.
“USDOT’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,” the letter said, adding “Travel data held by airlines and travel agencies may be of interest to foreign adversaries.”
A spokesperson for U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy did not immediately comment.
Then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in March 2024 under President Joe Biden opened a review of how the 10 largest U.S. airlines collect and use passenger information.
The letter said two years later “it remains entirely unclear whether a meaningful review ever took place.” USDOT did not make airlines’ response letters public and did not announce public findings or pursue any subsequent enforcement actions.
Airlines for America, an industry group, declined to comment.
The letter noted that for years the Airline Reporting Corporation — collectively owned by major U.S. airlines — sold access to a massive database containing roughly 722 million passenger travel records to federal agencies, including the Homeland Security Department and Internal Revenue Service, without warrants or court oversight.
The letter noted in November 2025 ARC ended the effort but this year DHS issued a public request to government contractors for a replacement airline passenger surveillance system.
The letter also cited a 2016 Justice Department audit that the Drug Enforcement Administration had paid airline employees millions of dollars to obtain some Americans’ private passenger data.
Mishandling consumers’ private information may be considered an unfair or deceptive practice by airlines and could result in civil penalties.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
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