Hacker Remix

Meta suspends accounts tracking jets

37 points by perihelions 13 hours ago | 34 comments

amatecha 12 hours ago

IMO, people who own and regularly fly in private jets are definitely worthy of the scrutiny -- not to mention the flight tracking data is public information.

That said, to me it's redundant: social platforms owned by publicly-traded corporations are probably not worth enriching with your free content anyways. Every login, every post, every "favorite"/"like" is literally growing their profits.

aeternum 11 hours ago

The tyranny of the majority. Doxing "me" should of course be illegal but for certain groups of "others", it's just fine.

BadHumans 10 hours ago

Others make billions selling every detail about your life. At the very least it's hypocritical.

eynsham 10 hours ago

Doxxing is when someone aggregates publicly available information, I see.

phil21 9 hours ago

Yes, that's pretty much the definition of doxxing. And then publishing it in a public forum for everyone to see.

What did you think it was? Anything else would typically be illegal illegal.

Pretty much anyone's (in the US at least) information is relatively public. This includes addresses, phone numbers, real estate transactions, criminal records, and far more. Most things people think of as private simply are not.

Hence why doxxing is against ToS for most platforms.

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 10 hours ago

Actually, yes, it is. Not trying to say anything on the topic of doxxing billionaires vs. doxxing a member of the masses but, as a member of said masses, I understand that my social security number, home address, name, and date of birth, to name a few, are publicly available information. Aggregating that information on some forum is literally what people call doxxing.

vdqtp3 9 hours ago

I'd argue that doxxing is when that data is linked to lcnPylGDnU4H9OF. It's different when the identity data is compiled but no associated with "identify this person" (whether real world like a video or semi-anonymous virtual identities)

bsder 11 hours ago

Rules for thee but not for me.

Zuck sure likes vacuuming up and aggregating everybody else's information but gets cranky when someone starts doing the same to him.

WalterSobchak 13 hours ago

https://archive.is/4G3Uj

ryandrake 12 hours ago

> Andy Stone, a spokesman for Meta, which also owns Facebook, said the accounts were disabled for “violating our privacy policy,” that they posed a “risk of physical harm of individuals,” and that the decision followed the recommendation of Meta’s independent Oversight Board.

I love how they just spew vague nonsense, unchallenged. How exactly does knowing that Celebrity X traveled from LA to NYC yesterday "pose a risk of physical harm?" Show the cause and effect, Andy Stone. Paint a believable picture that connects the dots from this information to "harm." But, Andy Stone will never have to actually do that or be specific because journalists just publish corporate PR statements without pushback or probing.

aeternum 12 hours ago

>How exactly does knowing that Celebrity X traveled from LA to NYC yesterday "pose a risk of physical harm?"

It's not just "travelled" it's "travelling". You can track the jet in realtime and if on a flight plan (which is most of the time) you can determine their destination ahead of time along with a highly accurate arrival time.

Paparazzi or more nefarious actors can then wait at the private airport terminal. It's also not theoretical as Elon's ex-wife + kids were attacked using this method and Paparazzi uses it regularly.

The best argument against this is that Meta banning it doesn't do much as people can still query FAA data directly.

waffleiron 10 hours ago

We should not longer have music festivals with this argumentation (as a random example from millions). People exactly know where and what time famous are at a specific location. Sure it might not be "highly accurate timing" but lets be honest a stalker doesn’t care about a bunch of hours more or less.

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1842048755169690103

Oh no Musk revealed where he’s going to be, someone could wait for him there.

It’s quite obvious that this is not about stalking as Elon loves being seen/heard and doesn't shy away from the public.

aeternum 10 hours ago

What is it about then? Elon himself has said he's fine with people posting his flights with a delay.

True to his word, there are active accounts on X doing just that: https://x.com/elonjetnextday

waffleiron 10 hours ago

Not sure, but as you can see from the pinned post of the account you linked, Elon even livestreams himself driving.

Could it be related to not wanting to give too up to date information that could be business related? I am just guessing, but maybe there is a fear that his flights could be used to derive information about Tesla/X/SpaceX incidents etc?

aeternum 10 hours ago

Maybe but I believe it is about safety, Elon himself chooses to live in the spotlight but his family doesn't. The real-time jet tracking puts his family at risk not just him.

mthoms 11 hours ago

>It's also not theoretical as Elon's ex-wife + kids were attacked using this method and Paparazzi uses it regularly.

There's no evidence that this incident involved the jet tracking. It occurred in the neighbourhood where his ex-wife lives.

https://archive.is/RWW4T

(Washington Post)

cadamsau 11 hours ago

Seems they could move the tracking to their own website, no?

GuB-42 11 hours ago

They are already in several places https://grndcntrl.net/links/