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Meta Bans Accounts Tracking Private Jets for Zuckerberg, Musk

224 points by JumpCrisscross 8 hours ago | 200 comments

mikeocool 7 hours ago

A quick Google search will tell you that Mark’s Gulfstream G650 has tail number N68885.

The FAA mandates that the jet broadcast its location over ADS-B, mostly to avoid being hit by other jets.

There are fortunately many websites that aggregate data from honorable volunteers with ADS-B receivers. So much that it’s easy to determine Mark probably took a trip to Cabos in late September.

I suppose it’s not explicitly public that it’s mark’s jet, the FAA has it registered to A7P TRUST CO INC TRUSTEE in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Another quick Google will lead you to an article that talks about how Mark’s last house was sold by an LLC managed by A7P (real estate transactions and their parties are also public data in most US jurisdictions). It’s not as if these accounts were revealing deep secrets, that were otherwise undiscoverable.

I guess now he knows how the rest of us feel about be tracked?

zitterbewegung 6 hours ago

Bezos stopped owning a jet and instead chartering flights which since the jets are owned by companies the Tail number is registered to them and they use what aircraft is available which can make the Tail number be different.

shiroiushi 6 hours ago

Probably a smart move. Plus, it might have made sense financially: does the guy really fly around so much to make it financially worthwhile to own a jet, instead of just chartering flights as needed? Chartered planes are in the air as much as the owner can rent them out (minus maintenance time), but private planes frequently sit around unused, missing out on potential revenue.

lancesells 3 hours ago

> does the guy really fly around so much to make it financially worthwhile to own a jet

I would guess yes.

shiroiushi 6 minutes ago

I would guess no. Maybe when he was younger and more active, but these days I don't believe he's flying somewhere every single day or so. If you have a plane and it isn't flying every single day that it's capable of doing so (i.e. not undergoing maintenance), then you're wasting money on it.

johnnyanmac 5 hours ago

For the times he lived in at his peak, I can see the argument. But I don't know in this day and age if any milllionaire+ that isn't on tour can justify doing that much movement.

mikeocool 5 hours ago

But if you own it, you get to write off its deprecation, maintenance, etc on your taxes!

autoexec 5 hours ago

So buy a chartered plane company. No one will know which airborne plane in your fleet is yours or if you're even in the air and you get the tax write offs plus the profits from the company.

JumpCrisscross 5 hours ago

> if you own it, you get to write off its deprecation, maintenance, etc on your taxes!

This is true of any capital asset. Broadly speaking, buying crap you don't need because you think it's a tax deal is a hobbyhorse of the middle class. Not the wealthy.

votepaunchy 5 hours ago

As does the Charter company. What is your point?

mikeocool 5 hours ago

If I’m a billionaire, I’d rather have the tax write off and own the jet, even though I probably ultimately would save money by chartering.

Also who wants to sit in a jet seat that someone else has sat in. Gross.

binkHN 5 hours ago

The way this game is usually played is Bezos, or a related trust or LLC buys the jets and then leases them to management companies that try to fly these jets as much as possible for profit.

missedthecue 6 hours ago

He owns a Gulfstream jet. He bought it in July.

seoulmetro 5 hours ago

Also known as anti-tracking insurance.

seb1204 6 hours ago

Seems like A7P is a servicing company for super rich people. I learned about such companies a while ago. They do exist but are not very much known.

zitterbewegung 6 hours ago

I googled a bit and they are lawyers so they probably setup trusts and LLCs.

stackghost 6 hours ago

>I guess now he knows how the rest of us feel about be tracked?

Privacy for me but not for thee.

This is the same asshole who called his users dumb fucks for trusting him, ran a PR campaign with slogans like "privacy is dead", got filthy rich by exploiting our personal data, and used that wealth to buy all the mansions around his, for privacy.

bonestamp2 5 hours ago

Yep, and there are a bunch of new things coming that will obfuscate private jet travel even more: https://www.popsci.com/technology/tracking-private-jets/

aliasxneo 6 hours ago

But he’s apologizing for everything now, so it’s ok. /s

FredPret 5 hours ago

Wasn’t he like 21 at the time?

We’ve all said some stupid shit and later apologized. The healthiest thing is for everyone to move on.

stackghost 2 minutes ago

No I think the healthiest thing would be to dismantle Meta, seize Zuckerberg's wealth, and roll it into social programs.

johnnyanmac 5 hours ago

AFAIK he didn't move on. He's being tried in real time in multiple countries and still does it. That's part of the problem.

I moved on years ago, but he probably still has my data.

31337Logic 2 hours ago

Swing and a miss, Fred. Next time.

sdbbp 7 hours ago

Fediverse: https://mastodon.social/@elonjet

notpushkin 6 hours ago

So this is the reason Threads users can't follow back inot the fedi!

croes 7 hours ago

Quite ironic from one of the biggest tracking companies.

xandrius 47 minutes ago

And there is also: https://celebrityprivatejettracker.com

To nicely see CO2 impact of these people.

Also for someone who is pushing the metaverse to replace face to face communication, he is surely travelling to meet other people face to face quite a lot!