Ban Sought on Sharing Corporate Jet Flight Data to 'Protect Fliers' Privacy'

It is interesting that information about private jet flights is considered competitively sensitive. But that suggests such data has considerable value, implying that it should either be taxed or that those who want it kept secret be charged for the privilege. JL

Andy Pasztor reports in the Wall Street Journal:

The latest complaints about a proposed air-traffic control modernization are from private jet operators worried that outsiders will be better able to identify and track the movements of corporate executives and celebrities.

The latest complaints about a proposed air-traffic control modernization are from private jet operators worried that outsiders will be better able to identify and track the movements of corporate executives and celebrities.

The privacy issue was raised publicly for the first time on Thursday by the major U.S. business aviation trade group, which wants federal regulators to agree to protect the confidentiality of such flights once the updated system is operating.

"Our largest concern is privacy," Doug Carr, vice president of regulatory and international affairs at the National Business Aviation Association, told a global aviation conference. "There is a huge appetite out there to track where these planes go."

Reporters and busybodies who know where to look on the web already can track the location of certain private planes, but the information is largely historical. Unless the proposed system is revised, however, the NBAA and other critics contend within in a few years almost any plane could be tracked in real time by anyone ingenious enough to know where to look.

Plans to implement a satellite-based traffic control network slated for 2020 would enable unauthorized capture of signals continuously broadcast from the air to the ground. Discrete signal codes associated with specific aircraft could then be matched with a publicly-available federal database to identify, minute by minute, the precise flight path and location of prominent passengers.

Mr. Carr said in some cases such anticipated capability raises huge security questions; there also are concerns about corporate executives or investment bankers being tracked during delicate negotiations or merger and acquisition discussions.

To alleviate the problem, the Federal Aviation Administration is considering allowing operators to change the broadcast codes at their discretion between trips, effectively blocking outsiders from instantaneously following flights on computer systems. Longer term, NBAA wants the codes encrypted, so only the FAA and controllers would continue to have the means for real-time tracking.

Already, Mr. Carr said, "virtual networks of flight tracking are popping up all over the place."

'Are we going to broadcast it [jet ownership] to the world?'
-Ed Bolen, NBAA president

Industry officials said privacy fears appear to be the biggest reason some business jet operators are delaying installing new equipment mandated by the regulators for the proposed modernization.

Ed Bolen, president of the NBAA, said in an interview that U.S. airlines are legally prohibited from publicly releasing passenger manifests.

But with impending technology improvements, he said, why does anyone outside the government "need to know who owns that airplane; are we going to broadcast it to the world?"

Current law allows operators to ask the FAA to block outside access to real-time identifying information, but that won't be possible unless the agency agrees to special provisions for the future.

Some industry officials disagree with Mr. Bolen's warnings. They contend that planes equipped with new broadcasting technology, part of what are called ADS-B systems, won't automatically be more vulnerable to unauthorized tracking.

"All customers share a real interest in addressing privacy and security" protections, Jens Hennig, vice president of operations for the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, told the same aviation symposium. But the new GPS-based position broadcasting system, he added, "doesn't materially change" the vulnerabilities of planes that already are using today's most advanced transponders.