Aviation leaders have at least one thing in common with pop star Taylor Swift: they want to make it harder for private jets to be publicly tracked.
The issue was front and centre on the second day of the NBAA BACE event in Las Vegas on 23 October when leaders discussed privacy and security risks that arise from aircraft tracking, while suggesting means of keeping information private.
“There’s a shared sense of frustration out there that we are not gaining ground on this [problem] fast enough,” says Steve Saflin, vice-president of aviation and travel services at retail giant Walmart.
“Personally identifiable information should not be publicly available,” adds Daniel Baker, founder of FlightAware.
One day earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported that Meta took down social media accounts that tracked public figures and celebrates. Earlier this year news broke that attorneys for Swift urged one social media user to stop tracking the pop star’s flights.
“There’s obviously a major concern… Some people are starting to use more charter [aircraft] because they are concerned,” says former Dassault Falcon Jet chief executive Jean Rosanvallon.
He notes Swift travels by Falcon 7X, adding: “She and her father are extremely concerned about her security.”
Private-jet-setters have long sought to keep their movements private. But onboard ADS-B transmitters make doing so difficult. The systems broadcast aircraft identification and flight data. Anyone with a receiver can pick up the signals, which is spawning numerous websites providing free aircraft tracking.
While some means of protecting privacy exist, sleuths have still been able to track down celebrities.
“One of the primary goals of these groups is to track aircraft that don’t want to be tracked,” says Baker.
The NBAA panellists say technology exists that could, for instance, enable pilots to assign their aircraft “transparent” codes that cannot be tracked, perhaps as easily as by selecting a new code on flight planning applications.
Business leaders would also welcome more privacy, says Jim Cooling, manager partner of aviation law firm Cooling & Herbers. He notes that repeated flights to the same destination could, for instance, tip off observers about a business deal in the works, such as a merger or acquisition.
