The Federal Aviation Administration is allowing private aircraft owners to opt out of sharing identifying information on the FAA’s websites, potentially making it more difficult to track the movements of privately owned aircraft such as business jets.
As part of a data privacy update in last year’s FAA reauthorisation bill, the FAA now allows private aircraft owners to request that their names, addresses and aircraft registration numbers be withheld from publication.
Starting 28 March, aircraft owners can submit a request through the Civil Aviation Registry to remove identifying information from the FAA’s online platforms.
The FAA says it is considering making such information hidden by default.
The USA’s civil aviation regulator says it is seeking public input on the measure to withhold aircraft owner information, including ”whether removing the information would affect the ability of stakeholders to perform necessary functions, such as maintenance, safety checks and regulatory compliance”.
Business jets are often owned by corporations and wealthy individuals, some of whom have decried flight-tracking as a personal safety risk. Billionaires Elon Musk and Taylor Swift have pushed back against social media accounts that share the movements of their private jets.
The FAA’s action will ostensibly make it more difficult to track those aircraft with publicly available tools.
