How Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Taylor Swift, and others are trying to dodge jet tracking

On Wednesday, Elon Musk's Twitter suspended over 30 jet-tracking accounts that were created by 20-year-old Jack Sweeney. The accounts showed the travel plans of celebrities like Musk, Donald Trump, and Taylor Swift.

Twitter took down the accounts that track Elon Musk's and Mark Zuckerberg's jets

The jet-tracking data is public information that Sweeney still shares on several other social media sites, including Instagram and Facebook.

Here's how to track the latest location of Elon Musk's private jet, after Twitter banned the @ElonJet account of a student who tracked the aircraft

Over the past year, celebrities like Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have struggled to shake jet-tracking accounts that follow their private planes' every move.

Elon Musk says social-media accounts that track his travel movements are 'becoming a security issue'

Jet-tracking wunderkind Sweeney helped ignite the trend in early 2022 when he made headlines for publicly tracking Musk's Gulfstream 650ER.

Elon Musk now has another lavish Gulfstream private jet in his arsenal

The college student uses a public website called ADS-B Exchange, which was founded in 2016 by IT professional Dan Streufert, to track the tail number, and a bot automatically uploads the flights to his social media accounts.

Source: ADS-B Exchange, Twitter

The website aggregates flight information with the help of over 7,500 volunteer-run radios around the world that receive information from ADS-B-equipped aircraft, Streufert told the Airplane Geeks podcast.

Source: LinkedIn, Airplane Geeks

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, ADS-B broadcasts information like GPS location, altitude, and ground speed from one plane to ground stations and other aircraft. This happens once per second.

Ulrich Zillmann/Getty Images

Source: FAA

The FAA required all operators to equip their aircraft with ADS-B technology by 2020 to fly in most controlled airspace. The agency says the move improves safety and efficiency, particularly in high-traffic airports like New York and Miami.

Source: FAA

Sweeney's tracking process is legal as ADS-B Exchange is public information, per Streufert.

The teen famous for tracking Elon Musk's jet has a new target: Russian oligarchs' jets and yachts

In January, Musk offered Sweeney $5,000 to take the jet-tracking account down, but Sweeney requested $50,000. Musk said he would think about it and never followed up.

Chesnot/Getty Images

Elon Musk offered a 19-year-old $5,000 to take down a Twitter account that tracks his private jet, report says

Before it was suspended, the @ElonJet Twitter account had nearly 500,000 followers.

Source: Twitter

In June, Mark Cuban even made a deal with Sweeney to give him a lifetime of business advice to stop tracking his travel on Twitter, which Sweeney agreed to.

The teen who tracks Elon Musk's jet agreed to stop monitoring Mark Cuban's flights on Twitter after the billionaire offered business advice: 'By ending this you have me as a friend for life'

Since he made headlines, Sweeney's myriad other jet-tracking accounts have gained popularity, including @TrumpJets, which had about 10,000 followers on Twitter before it was suspended on Wednesday...

Source: Twitter, Trump's beloved Boeing 757 private jet is finally flying again after a year of maintenance work and a new paint job

…and @ZuccJet at about 16,000 followers…

Source: Twitter

…and @CelebrityJets at nearly 125,000 followers, which tracks high-profile people like Floyd Mayweather, Blake Shelton, and Mark Wahlberg.

Source: Twitter

While Sweeney says he doesn't make any money off the accounts, he said he's gotten a job offer from Stratos Jet Charters out of his work. He's currently a sophomore at the University of Central Florida studying computer science.

Jack Sweeney

The 19-year-old who turned down $5,000 from Elon Musk to stop tracking his private jet has gotten a job offer out of the viral saga

With the gaining popularity of the account, Musk expressed concern that the ElonJet account could pose a security issue.

Source: Twitter, Jack Sweeney, Teen who turned down $5,000 from Elon Musk to shut down a Twitter account tracking the billionaire's jet says he gets too much work satisfaction to settle for less than $50,000

The accounts have also created PR issues for celebrities like Taylor Swift and Kylie Jenner, who have been blasted on social media for taking hundreds of flights per year and emitting thousands of tons of CO2.

Jokes and memes about Taylor Swift's private jet are taking over the internet as people mock her response to the carbon emissions controversy

So, it's not a surprise celebrities are trying to dodge jet trackers — but it isn't easy.

Elon Musk and Donald Trump are trying new ways to dodge jet-tracking Twitter accounts — but it's not a 'silver bullet'

The Federal Aviation Administration has created a program called "Limiting Aircraft Data Displayed," or LADD for short. Because they use FAA data, websites like FlightAware and FlightRadar24 will not show LADD-registered planes.

Source: FAA

If, for example, someone searched for Trump's 757 tail number — N757AF — on FlightAware, the screen would say the plane "is not available for public tracking per request from the owner/operator."

FlightAware

Source: FlightAware

Trump, along with Travis Scott, Drake, Steven Spielberg, and dozens of others, have signed up for the free program in an effort to dodge the tracking accounts of Sweeney and others.

Source: Twitter

Sweeney has even created a "LADD List" that houses all of the tail numbers that he estimates have signed up.

Source: Jack Sweeney

While, on the surface, this seems like a reliable way to avoid being tracked, Sweeney is thwarting their plans by using ASD-B Exchange. The website does not use FAA data, so it can display any flight regardless of if it is on the LADD list or not.

Streufert, who runs the ADS-B Exchange website, says it's gathered from "all public information," according to an interview with the AFP. "We have not removed anything so far," he told the AFP. "And I don't want to be the arbiter of who's right and who's wrong."

flyExclusive

Source: AFP

So, unfortunately for private jet owners, LADD isn't going to cut it. But, there is another free FAA program they can use that is more secure.

The program is called the "privacy ICAO aircraft address program," or PIA. This allows people to substitute their tail number for a temporary one not assigned to any other aircraft, allowing them to fly incognito.

Kevin Kurek/picture alliance via Getty Images

Celebrities like Musk and Trump have enrolled in PIA. The FAA said in October that more than 300 PIAs have been issued since its launch in December 2019.

It looks like Elon Musk started using a new program that blocks jet tracking after the man who follows his plane wouldn't take his Twitter account down

Musk actually sought advice from Sweeney on how to avoid being tracked and Sweeney suggested PIA, as shown in a Twitter DM exchange Sweeney shared with Insider.

However, despite having PIA, the planes can still be followed: "These privacy mitigation programs are effective for real-time operations but do not guarantee absolute privacy," the FAA told Insider.

For example, Musk flew from Texas to California on May 7, and while ADS-B Exchange did not display the real tail number, it flagged the jet as PIA and it was still uploaded to @ElonJet by Sweeney’s bot.

Source: Twitter

The FAA also noted to Insider that a Freedom of Information Act request, LiveATC, and frequently departed airports can also be used to identify PIA planes.

Source: Live ATC

"Elon Musk, for example, has a Gulfstream and there's only so many people that fly that particular plane out of Brownsville, Texas, and fly to the same airports," Sweeney told Insider.

With all of the loopholes to the FAA's privacy programs, the agency admits it is not a "silver bullet," prompting some celebrities and big names in business to ditch owning private jets altogether.

LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault, who oversees the Louis Vuitton brand along with other high-end names, sold his Bombardier Global 7500 in September, telling Bloomberg, "no one can see where I go because I rent planes when I use private planes."

The world's 2nd-richest man, Louis Vuitton's CEO, sold his private jet after people started tracking it on Twitter: 'No one can see where I go'

And Apple CEO Tim Cook has been renting private planes since 2017, with the company citing "security and efficiency" concerns.

Apple's board says Tim Cook has to fly private from now on 'in the interests of security and efficiency'

Meanwhile, earlier this year, Meta switched out Zuckerberg's private jet, forcing Sweeney to find the plane's new tail number all over again just months after he first started sharing the Facebook founder's travel on Twitter.

Teen who tracks Elon Musk's jet says he's discovered Mark Zuckerberg's new aircraft