Roland Dangerfield, founder of Sentinel Aviation – Reports
As the Operations Director of Sentinel Aviation, I wrote an article earlier in the year, about public accessibility of information on private jet flights around the world. Is this a breach of privacy or is it of public interest?
Over the years, both as a former business jet pilot and more recently the founder of Sentinel Aviation, I have flown members of Royal Families, Politicians, film and sport stars. I am therefore more than aware of the importance of confidentiality, security and privacy demanded by my clients.
I now read with interest that Meta (owners of Facebook, Threads and Instagram) has now banned a series of accounts that post location updates on private jets belonging to some of the world’s richest and most powerful people, including Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump. Meta said the actions were taken because of “the risk of physical harm to individuals.”
Those accounts have been deleted from Threads and Instagram, and corresponding Facebook accounts will be deleted soon, Andy Stone, Meta’s communications director, announces. The accounts, run by a Florida college student named Jack Sweeney, also track Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. Some still exist on other platforms, including Bluesky.
Sweeney has always defended his flight tracker project.
“It has journalistic value, reveals obviously many parts of a CEOs work or what partnerships may occur. Now not only that, but also it brings awareness to the very fact they are flying and the climate side,” he said, referring to the carbon emissions related to jet travel and their connection to climate change.
Stone, Meta’s communications director, said that the company decided on the ban because of “the risk of physical harm to individuals” and cited a recommendation from the company’s independent Oversight Board in 2022 that it remove references to a person’s residences. That recommendation does not mention private flights, but Meta took them as “broadly applicable to personally identifiable information,” Stone said.
Meta has shown an increasingly heavy hand in moderating what users can share on Facebook, Instagram and Threads. In February, the company announced it would stop recommending accounts that post “political content,” a broad category that can includes references to governments or elections. The jet-tracking accounts have been popular resources for journalists and watchers of the high-profile figures but have also become a significant flashpoint in recent years.
In 2022, soon after he bought Twitter (now X), Elon Musk banned the account from posting his jet’s movements, as well as the ones for Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, and Bezos, the executive chairman of Amazon. Musk said he considered the accounts to be violations of the platform’s rules against doxxing — posting someone’s personal information, which is largely considered a threat to safety. Musk also threatened legal action against Sweeney at the time but did not actually file a complaint against him.
Sweeney later started accounts on the platform that posted the same information with daylong delays, which are still up. Sweeney said he does not plan to create similar delayed accounts on Meta, saying, “They aren’t being transparent.”
Stone would not specify whether the policy change applies to accounts on delays, saying, “The determination would be based on safety considerations.” Sweeney has also been threatened by attorneys working for music star Taylor Swift. Sweeney said Meta removed the accounts tracking Swift’s jet this year.
Jet location information can be obtained in several ways. The Federal Aviation Administration provides tracking information for many flights, but it also allows some aircraft owners and operators to obscure the data from the public. Still, jet-tracking services have been able to obtain flight information for high-profile people using hardware that intercepts signal outputs specific to each jet, according to Business Jet Traveler.
