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July 19, 2020 04:34 am

The FBI Secretly Used Travel Company 'Sabre' As A Global Surveillance Tool

Engadget reports: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. 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 [in 2015], according to Forbes. Forbes calls that "one of at least four" instances where Sabre agreed to provide traveller information to America's investigators — with the others occurring in 2016, 2017, and 2019. Sabre processes over a third of all air travel bookings in the world, Forbes notes, and the former CEO of Sabre's Mexican business tells them between 1995 and 2010 Sabre had one of the top two largest privately-owned databases in the world. And citing former employees, Forbes also adds that "the same powerful trove of information could be used to help monitor the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic."

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