Privacy Risks on Vacation Travel and How to Stay Safe

Holiday travel is stressful enough with crowded airports, expensive flights, and last-minute itinerary changes. But there’s a hidden part of the travel industry that most people don’t know about: your personal data is collected, packaged, and sold every time you book a flight, book a hotel room, or consult a travel app.

Whether you’re traveling for a Christmas holiday or booking early for New Year’s, the companies you trust with your most sensitive data (full name, home address, passport information, travel dates, and device data) share and sell a lot more than you think.

And during the holiday season, that data becomes a gold mine for scammers.

Let’s take a look at how this works, which companies collect the most, and what you can do before you travel to keep your personal information out of the wrong hands.

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PROTECT YOUR DATA BEFORE HOLIDAY SHOPPING SCAMS STRIKE

Why vacation trips put your data at risk

The holiday season is the peak period for travel-related data collection. Airlines, hotels, booking platforms, loyalty programs, and travel apps are experiencing massive traffic spikes: Millions of Americans search for deals, compare prices, check gate changes, and rebook delayed flights.

Each of those actions creates trackable data points, including:

• Email address
• Phone number
• Full name and date of birth
• Address history
• Travel itineraries
• Passport or ID details
• Device fingerprint
• IP address and location
• Purchasing habits and spending patterns.

You can assume that this data remains with the airline or hotel. It’s not like that.

Most companies share it with advertisers, analytics companies, data brokers, and dozens of anonymous “partners.” Some even use your data to profile you: how often you travel, how much you’re likely to spend, and whether you’re a “high-value” target.

That information can easily leak into scammer databases, which is why vacation travelers suddenly see:

• Fake texts “your flight is cancelled”
• Phishing emails that look identical to hotel confirmations
• Fake baggage fee requests
• Fake TSA PreCheck Renewal Notices
• “Urgent re-verification required” messages.

Scammers rely on the fact that you are stressed, in a hurry, and waiting for travel updates. And since they already have your personal data, their attacks are terribly convincing.

PREVENT FOREIGN APPS FROM COLLECTING YOUR PERSONAL DATA

Examples of what major travel companies collect

Below are real-world examples of how vacation travel platforms collect and share your data:

1) Airlines (Delta, American, United, Southwest)

Major US airlines collect not only your name, phone number and email, but also travel companions, payment details, geolocation data, device data and loyalty program activity.

Share this with:

• “Marketing partners”
• Analytics platforms
• Third Party Advertisers
• Data enrichment companies.

Many of these partners, over time, become part of the data broker ecosystem.

2) Reservation platforms (Expedia, Booking.com, Hotels.com)

Each booking platform details what it includes in its privacy policy. Often these sites track:

• Search history
• Price views
• Device fingerprint
• Click behavior
• IP based location
• Payment attempts, including abandoned carts.

This is used to create profiles that determine what offers you are shown and how aggressively you are targeted.

3) Hotel chains (Marriott, Hilton, IHG)

Marriott’s privacy policy and other privacy statements list more than 60 categories of data it collects. Some chains were caught sharing guest data with:

• Advertising networks
• Social media platforms
• Third-party “guest experience” tools
• Affiliate networks
• Data brokers for tracking between devices.

Cybercriminals have been using the information of more than 500 million Marriott guests, exposed during a four-year breach that began in 2014, to craft and execute travel-themed scams to this day.

4) Travel apps (Airbnb, Hopper, KAYAK, TripIt)

These are some of the most aggressive data collectors because they run non-stop on your phone. Many collect:

• Real time location
• Contacts
• Clipboard data
• Behavior analysis
• Device ID
• Navigation within the application.

Some of these companies then “share information with partners to improve marketing,” which is usually code for selling data.

YOUR DISCARDED LUGGAGE TAGS ARE WORTH MONEY TO SCAMMERS

How scammers use your travel details

Once your information enters the ecosystem, scammers create travel-themed attacks designed to target you at the worst possible time. Some common examples include:

• Fake airline notifications: (e.g. “Your flight has been cancelled, click here to rebook”)
• Urgent emails about hotel “payment failures”: Scammers use leaked addresses and reservation data to send emails that look exactly like from Hilton or Marriott
• Fake baggage charges: (e.g. “Pay $24.90 to release your checked baggage”)
• TSA and Global Entry renewal scams.

This is not guesswork. They already have your name, flight, hotel, location and travel dates, because they were sold or leaked by travel industry data partners.

How to protect yourself before traveling

Here are my top steps for maintaining privacy this holiday season:

1) Check what data travel companies already have

Hotels, airlines, and booking sites have data deletion options, although they are hidden in their privacy settings.

2) Prevent apps from tracking your location

Turn off location permissions for apps like:

• Hopper
• Airbnb
• Expedia
• HotelTonight.

Many track you even when you are not in use. Here’s how to do it for iPhone and Android:

On iPhone: Open Settingstap Privacy and securityand then play Location servicesscroll down to the application and touch each applicationand set location access to “While using the app” either “Never,” and turn off “Share my location” if you don’t want them to see your exact place.

On Android: Open Settingstap Location, then choose App location permissions either app permissions, find the app and tap on it, and change each one to “Allow only while using the app” either “Do not allow” so they can’t track you in the background. (SSettings may vary depending on the manufacturer of your Android phone.)

3) Remove your personal data from data broker sites

This is the most important step. Even if you prevent airlines and hotels from collecting new data, your existing data is already circulating through dozens of data brokers, and that’s what fraudsters use to target travelers.

Data brokers maintain:

• Your travel patterns
• Address history
• Email and phone details
• income level
• home information
• The names of your relatives.

You can manually request removal of hundreds of sites, but it takes months. That’s why I recommend a data removal service. While no service can guarantee complete removal of your data from the Internet, a data deletion service is truly a smart choice. They are not cheap, and neither is your privacy. These services do all the work for you by actively monitoring and systematically deleting your personal information from hundreds of websites. It’s what gives me peace of mind and has proven to be the most effective way to delete your personal data from the Internet. By limiting the information available, you reduce the risk of scammers cross-referencing leak data with information they can find on the dark web, making it harder for them to target you.

Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already available on the web by visiting Cyberguy.com

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4) Use an email alias for reservations

An email alias reduces the amount of spam and phishing attempts you will receive. By creating email aliases, you can also protect your information. These aliases forward messages to your primary address, making it easier to manage incoming communications and prevent data leaks.

For recommendations on private and secure email providers that offer alias addresses, visit Cyberguy.com

5) Avoid airport Wi-Fi for anything that involves payments

Scammers often use fake access points. So, avoid the airport. public wifi when accessing financial information.

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Kurt’s Key Takeaways

The holiday season is here and many of us are preparing to travel to see family and friends. As travel increases, so does the collection and sharing of personal data. Airlines, hotels, and travel apps often share their information. ation with unknown third parties, which scammers can use to attack you during your trip. Before you pack your bags, take a few minutes to remove your personal data from online brokers. Doing this helps protect your identity and allows you to travel with peace of mind.

How do you protect your personal information when traveling on vacation? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com

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