About Elon Musk and tracking of his private jet
You may have seen stories over the last few days about Elon Musk
supposedly offering a teenager on Twitter $5K to stop sending out
tracking info regarding his private jet (apparently not the only
aircraft he tracks). Last I heard, the $5K was rejected, Musk hadn't
responded to a counter offer of $50K or other possibilities.
The thing about this is that it's a battle Musk is almost certain to
lose. The data involved is ADS-B aircraft transmissions that are
easily received with the proper (relatively inexpensive) equipment.
The FAA recently established a voluntary program for the "masking" of
actual plane ID data from ADS-B. The program involves substituting a
"temporary" ID that doesn't map to any publicly available registration
data, and could be changed no more frequently than once every 60 days
(ultimately to be once every 20 days).
The flaw in this plan is obvious. Once an aircraft has been identifed
through some other means (such as knowing when someone leaves a
specific airport and noting where they are headed or land based on the
kind of information typically available regarding many public
figures), that "temporary" ID can then be used (until it is changed)
for tracking pretty much just as easily as the unmasked ID. And there
are Internet sites where enthusiasts openly trade this information.
So even if Musk got this particular person to stop tweeting the location
of his jet, it is extremely likely that another person (or persons) would
take up where the original tweeter left off.
- - -
Request invite to my private discussion forum: [email protected]
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein ([email protected]): https://www.vortex.com/lauren
Lauren's Blog: https://lauren.vortex.com
Founder: Network Neutrality Squad: https://www.nnsquad.org
PRIVACY Forum: https://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
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