Its not like Jack Sweeney actually has ABS-B detectors of his own. All airplanes in the USA are going to have to have their ABS-B transponders on, to prevent mid-air collisions. You must broadcast your location at all times.
> Jack Sweeney was posting non public information.
I feel like the speculation going on in the discourse as to the mysterious ways that the tracking was able to perpetuate muddies the waters, so let’s make that clearer.
1. It is public information that SpaceX has a public address at 1 Rocket Road, Hawthorne[0].
2. It is public information that a jet is registered at FAA for an owner whose shell company has a public address at 1 Rocket Road, Hawthorne. Its tail number is N628TS[1].
3. The jet is required by law to broadcast publicly, unencrypted, its tail number. Hobbyist pilots and ATCs around the world exchange that information to keep track of what is in the air. That exact jet’s ACARS information contains both its tail number and ICAO address[2]. The PIA anonymization program can randomize the ICAO address, but here we find which one it is by going through all planes. There are just so few.
4. The jet is also required to broadcast ADS-B messages publicly. ADS-B contains the ICAO address and latitude / longitude / altitude / velocity[3].
You can track Elon’s flight from the tail number using the ADS-B system and the tail number is public information. You can find it all over photos all over the internet, even if you couldn’t you could just drive over to the airport, you can also verify it by checking the plane is registered to a company co-located at SpaceX. It’s all public information in about 200 different ways.
