FBI reportedly uses a travel company's data for worldwide surveillance

guest · Jul 18, 2020

FBI reportedly uses a travel company's data for worldwide surveillance
Sabre has even provided 'real-time' tracking for a suspect
July 18, 2020
https://www.engadget.com/fbi-sabre-travel-surveillance-data-214207935.html

The FBI doesn’t necessarily have to rely on spy databases or phone records to collect vast amounts of information about suspects — it might just have to ask a travel company for help

Forbes understands the FBI is using info from Sabre, the world’s largest travel data holder, to conduct surveillance around the world.
Officials have reportedly asked the company to “actively spy” on targets, even while they’re in the midst of travelling.
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In December 2019, the FBI asked Sabre for “real time” weekly surveillance of an Indian fugitive, Deepanshu Kher, for the space of six months. The firm was required to provide “travel orders, transactions or reservations” for Kher, who was caught in January and placed under house arrest.

The travel data has also been used to catch people like alleged card scam site operator Alexei Burkov, according to Forbes.
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It also points to significant privacy concerns. Companies like Sabre hold massive amounts of data that could be prone to abuse. That may already be happening — the FBI reportedly used the All Writs Act, the same controversial measure it tried to use to force Apple to hand over iPhone data, to request Kher’s information.
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Forbes: The FBI Is Secretly Using A $2 Billion Travel Company As A Global Surveillance Tool

The latest order on Sabre also notes the company had previously complied with three similar orders to “assist in effectuating arrest warrants”: [...]
He says that if it wants to leverage the All Writs Act, the government has to show a third party is necessary and close enough to the matter at hand.

There are also questions on the “reasonableness of the burden” on Sabre, another requirement for All Writs Act orders, he adds. “In one particular order, it might not be that burdensome, but once you start to get some volume here, then it really turns Sabre into a sort of … government agent every time they want to find a fugitive.”
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guest · Jul 20, 2020

FBI enlists reservation services to spy on travelers
July 17, 2020
https://papersplease.org/wp/2020/07/17/fbi-enlists-reservation-services-to-spy-on-travelers/

This report in Forbes and these orders aren’t a surprise, but they do provide positive confirmation of (previously suspected) facts about US government activities and US law that may be of considerable significance to challenges to travel surveillance under the laws of other countries including the European Union, Canada, and possibly others.

As we’ve been pointing out for many years, computerized reservation systems (also known as “global distribution systems”) are central to the storage and transmission of airline reservations (and, to a lesser extent, reservations for hotels, rental cars, and other travel services) by and between airlines, travel agencies, other travel companies — and government agencies.
Access to airline, travel agency, and other travel company data through CRSs is often preferred by government agencies because going directly to the CRSs is simpler [...]

The order to Sabre included a “gag order” clause prohibiting Sabre from disclosing the existence of the order to any person or entity except Sabre’s lawyers.
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So far as we can tell, no airline, CRS, or travel agency has ever published such a transparency report — perhaps because doing so would call attention to the travel industry corporate norm of willing collaboration with police in spying on travelers.
Nor, so far as we can tell, has any travel company ever stood up for its customers’ privacy and civil liberties by challenging a government request for information about travelers.
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