Elon Musk’s private jet is tracked with public data. Is it doxxing?

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The whereabouts of Elon Musk’s private jet is based on public data that Musk banned from Twitter this week.

Flight data for aircraft from Musks’ brilliant multi-million dollar Gulfstream G650 jet to commercial jets has long been public. Now Musk, who acquired Twitter for $44 billion in late October, says revealing the location of his jet is tantamount to doxing, a form of online harassment that involves sharing personal information in a way that could cause harm.

The same doxing rules apply to journalists as they do to everyone else, he said in a tweet Thursday. They posted my exact location in real time, basically the coordinates of the assassination. The Washington Post has seen no evidence that reporters did what it claimed.

The internet has made public huge amounts of data, from property records to family ties, as well as phones posting people’s locations in real time. Sometimes, data empowers scammers and criminals. But there are limits to the value of data that can be outdated or false. And in the case of publicly available flight information, it reveals the location of the aircraft, not its passengers.

Though Twitter has abruptly changed its rules to prevent accounts from sharing real-time location details, it can’t stop the torrent of aviation enthusiasts tracking jets and posting information elsewhere.

Musk and Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Here’s an overview of what’s going on with Musks’ personal jet tracking and how people are following him.

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