Is Elon Musk's jet trackable using only public data?

Question

My plane is actually not trackable without using non-public data

This is a part of an ongoing controversy surrounding the bans on accounts posting the location of his private jet.

Can the location of said jet be obtained using public data alone?

For mods/close-voters: there's [hundreds](https://news.google.com/search?q=elonjet&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen) of news articles on the subject at the moment, so this is definitely a notable question. — JonathanReez, Dec 16 '22 at 20:02
Also note the question is specific to the aeroplane, not the owner. — Criggie, Dec 17 '22 at 06:12

score 59 · Answer 1 · edited Dec 22 '22 at 15:13

Yes, it does appear to be trackable with only publicly available data and it appears that Elon Musk is making various requests to make it harder to track his flights.

Reddit now has a subreddit entirely dedicated to tracking Elon Musk’s jet

The start of the article mentions a program he applied to that makes it harder to track his flights.

Elon Musk has banned the Twitter accounts of the app that tracked his jet, the creator of that app and several high-profile reporters who covered the story. He has even, apparently, applied for a new FAA program, which makes it harder to track his plane.

The ADS-B Exchange is a public site to track flights all around the world and it is my understanding that a lot of journalists use it when they need to track flights.

Musk has long disliked ElonJet tracker, which uses publicly available data gathered from ADS-B exchange, a larger hobbyist site that assembles publicly available data from the transponders of different aircraft. However, he promised when he took over Twitter that he would not ban the account, in the name of free speech.

As a side note while it isn't relevant to the question about tracking planes it seems this reaction came after Musk thought a stalker went after a vehicle that his two year old son was in. (Whether there was indeed a stalker is unclear.)

On Wednesday, Musk alleged a car carrying his two-year-old son X was followed by a “crazy stalker (thinking it was me)” on Dec. 13, who blocked and climbed on the hood of one of the vehicles. He followed up the allegation by saying that he was would take legal action against Jack Sweeney, creator of the app and a freshman at the University of Central Florida. Suspensions of several journalists’ Twitter accounts soon followed.

More on ADS-B Exchange

ADS-B Exchange rightfully calls itself “the world’s largest source of unfiltered flight data.” The key word is “unfiltered,” meaning that the site relies on ADS-B signals and does not filter out information about US aircraft that have requested anonymity through the US government, which makes it attractive to journalists. As the only tracking service to do this, ADS-B Exchange has proved to be a disruptive force in the tracking industry since it was started by US pilot Dan Streufert. Billing itself a cooperative, ADS-B Exchange relies on a worldwide community of more than 2,000 people who send in real-time MLAT and ADS-B data. This is uploaded on a searchable website. It’s free for non-commercial use (contributions requested). Commercial users are required to license the data.

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/141472/discussion-on-answer-by-joe-w-is-elon-musks-jet-trackable-using-only-public-dat). — Jamiec, Dec 22 '22 at 10:42

score 25 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 19 '22 at 09:25

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Musk should be enrolled in the PIA program.

But as mentioned in this article, it looks like they're using past behaviours to track him.

From the article:

It’s a laborious process, and codes cannot be changed more than once every 60 days. This means they can be of limited utility, since astute observers might be able to use other clues to figure out an aircraft owner’s identify. Musk takes part in the PIA program, so some of his supporters have argued that Sweeney isn’t using publicly available information. But his plane’s well-known past behavior was a dead giveaway. “Elon Musk, for example, has a Gulfstream and there’s only so many people that fly that particular plane out of Brownsville,” Sweeney told the website Insider.

answered Dec 19 '22 at 09:25

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Yeah I think this is the real crux of the matter. The info is public, but maintaining track takes dedicated effort. Though it's probably not hard. I imagine the old code vanishes and poof, a brand new code appears, on the same type of plane at the same location, so it's obvious enough what just happened. – JamieB Dec 19 '22 at 15:27
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All of the information that is being used is publicly available. Just because some work has to be done to connect it all doesn’t mean that it isn’t publicly available. – Joe W Dec 19 '22 at 16:20
@JoeW I do think that Musk has a point in the sense that at some point this starts to amount to doxxing, even if every single source of information is public. – JonathanReez Dec 20 '22 at 17:45
@JonathanReez doxxing refers to the publishing or release of *private* information, typically with malicious intent. You cannot dox someone with public information because the information is public, even if the malicious intent is present. That would likely be a different crime outside of doxxing. IANAL but you're looking more at something like harassment or stalking rather than doxxing. – GOATNine Dec 20 '22 at 19:47
@JonathanReez And he did say before that he would not ban people for that and later turned around and started banning people for it. – Joe W Dec 20 '22 at 20:02
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@GOATNine if someone uses their real name on Stackoverflow and you find their real address by piecing together multiple bits of public information, is it perfectly acceptable to publish it for everyone to see? – JonathanReez Dec 20 '22 at 20:12
@JonathanReez did I ever say it was acceptable? I just said it wasn't doxxing, as doxxing by definition requires the publishing of *private* information. Publishing public information with malicious intent is still very likely a crime, it's just not doxxing. – GOATNine Dec 20 '22 at 20:49
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@GOATNine Elon Musk's personal location is private information, doxxed via the public location of his vehicle. – Andy Gee Dec 20 '22 at 21:51
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@AndyGee perhaps I wasn't clear enough, so let me clarify again. The public, consistent release of data that is publicly filed with the FAA, even with malicious intent, is not doxxing. The data released is not *private*. Your inference that the jets flight plans are equivalent to Musk's location at a given moment are not correct, because it is not a certainty that he will be on the jet, and he certainly won't remain with the jet after landing. That's like arguing that the media doxxes the president every time they announce a speech venue. – GOATNine Dec 20 '22 at 23:51
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@GOATNine Very few countries have any law against "doxxing", so I'm not sure what exactly you're referring to. Usually, though, people include publishing identifying records like addresses as doxxing, even though they are available in public records (e.g., real estate transactions). – Bryan Krause Dec 21 '22 at 20:08
@GOATNine Releasing the home address of someone is usually referred to as doxxing, and that is not private information. – User65535 Dec 22 '22 at 22:55
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dox – GOATNine Dec 23 '22 at 16:31
If you have to figure the information out, then it's not publically available knowledge. It would not be available to the public until an industrious person figured it out and then published it. – Austin Dec 24 '22 at 00:48
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doxxing is not limited to publishing private info, though that is a big part of doxxing. "doxxing", as commonly used, has included the undesirable publishing of not-widely-known public info. For example, it was broadly considered it 'doxxing' [for The New York Times to (threaten to) reveal Scott Alexandre's full name, in the Slate Star Codex controversy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slate_Star_Codex#New_York_Times_controversy). – Jamin Grey Dec 25 '22 at 01:44

score 15 · Answer 3 · edited Dec 18 '22 at 09:21

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Musk's jet operates comercially, and registers its flight plans, which are a matter of public record in the US (Source). His jet also uses a transponder which broadcasts on a publicly available channel ("All planes have to have a transponder which shows their locations, so the information is public", The Independent).

edited Dec 18 '22 at 09:21

Schmuddi

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answered Dec 17 '22 at 19:42

Aaargh Zombies

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@JoeW: I've added the only sentence from the paywalled article that pertains to the transponder, but it's really not a strong source. This answer would benefit from a more substantial reference for the claim the channel on which the transponder information is broadcast is indeed publicly available. – Schmuddi Dec 18 '22 at 09:23
@Schmuddi, ...it's unencrypted radio; anyone with an antenna and line-of-sight can pick it up. How could it _not_ be public? (Open-source software for decoding is widely available, so this is readily accessible to hobbyists with software-defined radio equipment). – Charles Duffy Dec 18 '22 at 22:11
@CharlesDuffy Conversations I have with my friends are unencrypted; anyone with a laser microphone and line-of-sight can pick it up. Yet, it's not public. (This _is_ public information, yes, but your explanation of _why_ needs some work.) – wizzwizz4 Dec 18 '22 at 23:52
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@wizzwizz4 a better analogy is that you're yelling in a foreign language to your friend over on the other side of a public space. should you have an expectation of privacy? of course not, anyone that knows that language could easily listen in. – Zac Faragher Dec 19 '22 at 00:38
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if you think ALL aircraft have their location publicly available, think again. Military and other government aircraft can turn off transponders (or not have them at all) or have the signals spoofed (aircraft ID for ADS-B randomised for example). I know one person who's on the diplomatic corps and their jets are so equipped. – jwenting Dec 19 '22 at 08:00
@jwenting, Anyone can switch off a transponder, most just have an off switch on them. In this case, Musk flew with a transponder and his pilot logged a flight plan, so my answer is valid for the case mentioned in the question. – Aaargh Zombies Dec 20 '22 at 18:14
@Schmuddi, do we need particularly strong sources for every day information? Water is wet can be sourced to almost anywhere. – Aaargh Zombies Dec 20 '22 at 18:17
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@AaarghZombies: I'm not an aviation expert. While I do know that planes have transponders, I assume that for military planes, the information is not publicly available. But if the transponder information can be concealed for military planes, what about government planes (e.g. Air Force One)? Does it have a transponder? Is it publicly available? No idea. But if transponder information of government planes can be concealed, why not take it a step further and allow that for celebrity planes as well if they want that? This is very much different from "water is wet", at least in my book. – Schmuddi Dec 21 '22 at 09:07
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@Schmuddi AF1 is by definition a military aircraft. It's the callsign used by whichever USAF aircraft carries the president. If you mean Executive 1, which would be a non-military aircraft carrying the president, it would have its transponder and flight plans non-public, you'd not be able to find it on places like Flightradar 24. ADS-B would show it as something non-descript, probably randomised (I'm sure there's a category of codes used for unlisted aircraft that they can use, as well as diplomatic flights). – jwenting Dec 21 '22 at 13:34
@jwenting: Fair enough, thanks for the clarification (I'm not from the US, and I wasn't aware of the concept of an Executive One). – Schmuddi Dec 21 '22 at 13:40
@Schmuddi no worries. The callsign of the presidential aircraft varies depending on who provides it. AF1, Navy1, Marine1, Executive1, probably Army1 if he were to use an Army helicopter, etc. – jwenting Dec 21 '22 at 16:13
Transponders don't transmit their location to the public or anyone else. The pilot sets the transponder to "squawk" a 4-octal-digit number (one of 4096 possible) as directed by ATC. Then, whenever a radar's sweeping beam hits it, the transponder transmits that number. The radar provides the direction and distance, and the immediately squawked number the identification. The ATC people can see this number on their screens beside the dot indicating the location of a flying object. They can then use this number to determine which plane it is. The numbers give no information useful to the public. – Ray Butterworth Dec 21 '22 at 17:24

Is Elon Musk's jet trackable using only public data?

3 Answers3