> 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].
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].
[0]: https://www.spacex.com/media/privacy_policy_spacex.pdf
[1]: https://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/Search/NNumberResul...
[2]: https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/109/52...
[3]: https://mode-s.org/decode/content/ads-b/1-basics.html