The flight tracker that powered @ElonJet has taken a left turn

Fact No.1
When you fly your plane, you have to rely on public infrastructure, like ATCs. Hence, you must comply with regulations, you must share your datas required by law.

Fact No.2
As the plane is your private property, you have the right to limit revealing details about its whereabouts. In some extent.

Fact No.3
If you are one of the super-riches, you can be a target of one of the super-crazies. Hence, you have the right to hide your whereabouts. And it also is your best interest.

Fact No.4
If you are one of the 10 richest person of the world, you are way more exposed to the super-crazies, like kidnappers, gold-miners, or assassins than a regular 9-to-5 fellow. Hence, you have to be way more focused on your safety than others. But on the other hand, you have way more resources to comply with these needs.

Fact No.5
If there are solutions to hide your whereabouts (like FR24) while flying, you should pay for it. Because you get a service.

Finally something that is non-factual:
If these student fellas do not break the law publishing publicly available datas and you are one of the super-targeted super-riches, work hard, or harder, or even harder, or bloody-super-hard to find a solution for the satisfaction of all involved.

This is not that complicated. Or is it?

I think it's funny that all of you think that just because a 'famous person' owns an aircraft - that every time that craft flies, that 'famous owner' is on it.
Reality is less that half the time a celebrity-ownd aircraft flies the actual owner is ON that aircraft.

I also LOVE IT every time I read an irresposible writer say "And its users are furious.".
QUOTE ME 5 or 6 serious people that are 'furious' - unless it is the writer's co-workers or friends, Few, if anyone, is 'furious'.

Looking for a sponsor to continue flight training
Pls dm 🙏✈️✈️✈️

I LOVE IT every time I read an irresposible writer say "And its users are furious.".
QUOTE ME 5 or 6 serious people that are 'furious' - unless it is the writer's co-workers or friends, Few, if anyone, is 'furious'.

Does ADS-B transmit an aircraft tail number or just its Hex ID ? If it's not sending out its tail number then someone is able to freely find anyone's tail number and track it, correct?

PS. I use ADS-Bx just to watch what planes are flying overhead and to also watch what military flights, which isn't available on other sites, to see what kind of traffic is moving around the world.

It would have been nice if the writer for "Wired" had gotten the "name" of the FAA correct.
One might wonder what other details were mangled in this article.

Starlink helping Ukraine ? Putin might take advantage to down an enemy?

Why does the Govt feel it is okay to provide flite/aircraft info to the public but not automobile license numbers?

Isn't tracking flights part over an overall safety protocol? If planes were flying around invisible, wouldn't that cause safety issues? Seems like there is a reason for tracking in the first place that serves everyone in the air.
If I am driving my car on the public street, other drivers can see me. If I am flying a plane, I don't want to wait until I see another aircraft to avoid running into it. I am not a pilot. It just seems to me that sometimes we have to put aside our personal issues for the overall good, Mr. Musk.

When you're CEO of a publicly traded company...do you really expect to be able to fly around incognito? And to boot, one that sells products touted as "low greenhouse gas emissions"? He obviously chose the wrong profession, maybe he should be a spy for the state department.

I provided a feed to ADSBexchange. Now i provide one to FR24. I'll happily provide ADS and MLAT to any noncensorious company that will share it freely. No LADD, no fees, no Elon, no problem.

As of Sept of this year, all of our radio controlled models over 9 ounces will be required to have a device similar to ADSB in them to track our airplanes. For it to be useful, it's going to have to appear somewhere in the data display on full scale aircraft. Just one more thing to keep track of in the cockpit. Government doing what it does best, grow government.

Privacy? Since when?

Users' anger is nothing to do with any privacy issue, it is that people provide data from their own systems without any recompense and here we are with a belief by a financial institution that it can make money out of such freely donated data. Many of the donors of data will not be continuing to feed the system so what will be left for the purchaser? A cynical view might be that the intent is to close down such an open and excellent system to appease those trying to hide their activities....

If you can't lick 'em, buy 'em.

So the rich don't want us to know where they go!

So the rich don't want us to know where they go!

If you are for blocking your publicly-available data transmissions, then you must be for blocking your publicly-available voice transmissions. It's either both or it's neither.

If you don't want to be tracked, plane or vehicle, then you need to throw you cell phone away and never buy a new one.

Just make the data private for non commercial aircraft. Problem solved.

I don't understand why people are so upset about this... this is public data that is being transmitted in the open for anyone to receive. It is a good system... If someone does not want to be tracked while flying... then Drive! If I am meeting someone at the airport, it is nice to get an updated ETA without having to talk to anyone.. This public data... No reason not to share it. Musk is just an oversized Cray Baby!

I don't want to be tracked in my car. If I had a plane, I wouldn't want to be tracked in a plane. Travelling within the US should be a private activity.

The only way to make it private is for aircraft to stop broadcasting ADS-B data. The protocol has no confidentiality so anybody can capture and share it. However, Congress could pass laws making it illegal to record ADS-B transmissions and that would dry up the ADB-B exchange.

Why are they trying to hide ? ? ?

I believe a right to privacy is fundamental in a free society. As linbb so aptly put it, would you like a tracker on your car that freely told everyone in the world where you went, where you parked, when, and live and in realtime? This concern is no different for private planes than for private cars.

Guv'mint and Corp. tracking citizens = GOOD. Citizens tracking guv'mint and big wigs = BAD.

I didn't realize that airways are private. We live in a world that police capture license plates of cars on the toad, place cameras at street corners, and capture domestic phone calls.

Why is it necessary to give space to Musk and Saudi royals?

Best thing that could happen is to make it private so people can move around without worring about being tracked. That is a real problem for many people its like putting trackers on everyones cars.