The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the US Secret Service want to build a tool for tracking US travelers’ flights and other personal information according to previously unreported documents reviewed by Mother Jones.

These agencies have asked for feedback from the private sector on whether this tool can be made, or if something like it already exists. Their request was posted on the government’s database for contractors. In it, the Secret Service, an arm of DHS, outlines the specifics they envision: a program that would provide real-time or near-real time access to a range of personal travel data, including passenger names, origins and destinations, flight numbers, ticket numbers, and forms of payment. The data would be gleaned from third-party ticketing sites, such as Orbitz or Expedia, and must cover major US and international airlines.

“It’s not hard to imagine that DHS would want access to these travel records to be able to track all sorts of people.”

The proposed tool appears to be an attempt to rebuild a surveillance pipeline that was recently shuttered amid public backlash. Last year, The Lever and 404 Media revealed that the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC)—a data broker owned by the major US airlines—had discreetly sold........

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