The FAA hiding private jet details might not stop celebrity jet trackers

is a weekend editor who covers the latest in tech and entertainment. He has written news, reviews, and more as a tech journalist since 2020. Yesterday, we wrote that a new Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) process would help private jet owners keep their registration details private upon request, and speculated that it would make things difficult for celebrity jet trackers. Jack Sweeney, known for his accounts tracking the flights of celebrities like Elon Musk and Taylor Swift, says he doesn’t think it will. In an email, Sweeney told The Verge that learning “who owns what planes already requires research,” and that he and other jet trackers often “use the media and associated sources” rather than the FAA’s database of registrations. The FAA said on Friday that it’s considering defaulting to withholding personally identifiable information from registration records. Even if jet trackers relied more on the FAA’s database, Sweeney suspected that the rule doesn’t apply to those who r ... Read full article.