Congress Just Made It Basically Impossible to Track Taylor Swift’s Private Jet

0nekoneko7@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 337 points –
Congress Just Made It Basically Impossible to Track Taylor Swift’s Private Jet
gizmodo.com
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At least the priorities are in the right place. Abortion rights have not been acted on for a century, climate change is hard, Ukraine can't be helped, but the fundamental right for everyone to use their private jet anonymously has been protected.

How about a minimum wage increase while the economy is so strong?

This country belongs to the ultra-rich, we just live here.

Abortion rights were just acted on a year or two ago...

This isn't really about Swift. It's about Elon Musk, and Clarence Thomas, and Donald Trump, and all the other corrupt narcissists who don't want you to know what they're up to.

And yet notice how these articles are all focused on Taylor Swift. After all, the owners can’t let articles point out their privilege and class disparity.

To be fair, I totally expect far right sociopathic billionaires to do this kind of evil move. Taylor Swift is not typically lumped in with them even though she should be.

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Eat the rich. Congress works for them, not for us.

All talk here. No action will be taken.

The only action people have is to vote people in power who are not absolute pieces of shit.

What they do once in office should directly affect your choice during the next election cycle.

Unfortunately most people vote blindly along their party lines.

So, yes, you’re right. It’s all talk here but it’s not like that talk can’t lead to actions.

But is that the only action people could take? What if some of these private jets just happened to catch fire in the middle of the night when no one is around?

That's not the only action people have. It's just the only one that hasn't been criminalized yet.

Since the system is fixed, we don't even really have the option to vote people in who are not absolute pieces of shit

I don't want to engage in whataboutism but the fact is when they pass a law for one thing it's at the cost of something else that will never see the floor

The house passed a bill to help reign in insurance-pharmacy middle men (PBMs) who are directly responsible for the shitty system and pharmacy closures we are all experiencing. Schumer wont put it on the floor because it's not a priority. But Musks private jets are.

This isn't a stand alone bill, it's just an amendment in the FAA re-authorization bill. They have to pass this bill every 5 years to keep air traffic going.

like /u/toiletobserver memed in this thread, "Challenge Accepted". All the airplanes are still going to have to broadcast ID through ADS-B. They are going to shuffle the N-numbers around but I'm sure we're going to have the finest geeks on the case deciphering who is who in the air based on where people end up on the ground.

billionaires get this sort of data privacy amendment, while regular Americans get surveillance capitalism as usual.

Well to be entirely fair, the amendment just says "private plane registration, so this should apply to billionaire jets but also down to the dinky weekend 1971 Cessna that a "regular American" owns

ETA: actually now that I think about it, drones above a certain dinky threshold also require registration, so those would be covered as well I'd think

I'm guessing the owner of a dinky 1971 Cessna most likely doesn't care if they can be found on an FAA tracker website. Taylor Swift and Elon Musk, on the other hand...

That Cessna owner also isn't as likely to be a target of violence from some fanatic (arguably justified or not).

Cool. Is there one shred of evidence beyond Elon's spurious claim that has ever happened?

Because if you are famous enough to worry about that and rich enough to fly around in a private jet and that worries you, hire security.

What this guy said. No way the richest people on earth are walking around without body guards.

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drones above a certain dinky threshold also require registration

Basically 0 chance that this law applies to RC helicopters/planes/multirotors. They don't contain GPS and they aren't monitored by air traffic controllers.

The newer regs boil down to you basically have to write your ID number in the canopy and avoid restricted airspaces... and who the hell is gonna roll by and check that you have a number written in your canopy? Maybe cops that get a complaint, and that is pretty rare. The older guys who have been in the hobby that I know completely ignore the newer regs, if you aren't bothering anybody then nobody cares.

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I don’t know whether to laugh or scream at how outrageous it is that out of all the issues that could benefit from bipartisan cooperation, THIS is what we get. Bunch of turds.

We don't have to think hard as it actually is a bipartisan issue. Their lifestyles are now harder to track by us so it helps both party's and their sugar daddies/mommies.

At last constant surveillance is deemed a problem, which is why ultra-rich have their privacy protected, while you, peons, keep being monitored.

Ok I'm just going to make a open source project to track that's jets adsb Signal and let people put a reserve at there house oh wait that's just flight 24 it doesn't matter what law makers do she can always be tracked by 1 person with a sdr and a antenna

Will that work even if the plane registration is private/anonymized? Sure you can know where every plane is, but can you know whose it is?

What a bunch of bullshit, yet another example of how billionaires get their interests served but we just get to help make them even richer while being taxed, but not represented because we can't afford the bribes lobbying.

Yup. Its amazing how quick and efficient the government is when rich peoples interests are involved

will allow private aircraft owners to anonymize their registration information

Can't be misused for terrorism, huh?

But then how will we know when she takes her private jet jet jet to her private jet jet to her to her private jet?

Too late, everyone jets had been tag and last known location will still reveal who they are. Useless bill as always.

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They still have to run ADS-B transponders. This just makes it harder to link the person to the plane.

Why would anyone want to? I seriously don’t understand this.

It's fun to watch airplanes. Watching them via radio is also fun. The data has been public since the FAA started issuing tail numbers and it's never really been an issue before.

What's really fucked up is that these jets currently operate under Part 91, just like grandpa's Cessna. Quite unregulated when it comes to how long the pilots can fly and the taxes are lower than Part 135 which is where I believe these private jets should operate. IMO a private plane should be owner operated, allowing the individual to determine safety limits. Part 135 regulates quite a bit more, including pilot rest periods and allowed weather conditions. We already regulate these billionaire's car drivers more stringently than a regular driver, why not the air travel too?

edit: oh, duh. If the airplane operates under Part 135 it can easily be owned by an LLC which is the same form of privacy protection I (and many others) use to shield my identity in real estate records.