Curtis L. Olson wrote: > Frederic Bouvier wrote: >> Quoting Vassilii Khachaturov : >> >> >>>> It looks like a breach of individual's privacy to me. You can track >>>> people's travel ( owner names are apparent ) and I doubt it would be >>>> permitted this side of the Atlantic. >>>> >>> in this particular case the FAA tail number registry gives a charter >>> company flying exec jets. No client names disclosed. >>> >> Not true when people are flying their own plane. Here a counter example : >> http://flightaware.com/resources/registration/N555CA >> >> And don't tell me a PA28 is an airliner ;-) > > I think there is some gray area here. When you drive your car, you post > your license plate # in plain and easy view both front and back. An > airplane will also have it's registration number prominently displayed > for all to see, and you need to transmit your identity and location in > order for ATC to track you and maintain the safety of everyone in the > airspace. > > When you enter the airspace (or the roadways) you give up some of your > privacy and freedoms and agree to play by a common set of rules ... > usually for the sake of safety, or the environment, or justified for > some greater common good. > > I don't know what the correct answer is for this particular case, and > being able to go back and lookup a complete history of a private pilot's > travels (start, destination, times, dates, etc.) seems like it could be > a little over the line. > > The ability of computers to collect and index and sort and preserve > massive amounts of public information creates definite privacy issues. > Where as before you were protected by being a needle in a haystack and > an observer has to watch you fly over to get any public data on you, now > anyone can specifically lookup all public data about your flights, and > the sum of that public data might be infringing on your privacy rights. > Interesting debate. :-) > > The gov't could track how well you hold your heading, altitude, and > speed, and revoke the licenses of the bottom 10% every year ... there's > all kinds of fun stuff you could do with this data. :-) > > Curt. >
Sounds like a good reason to fly VFR. I wonder if they have considered the safety implications of this. I know in the US you can request that ATC watch you while you are flying VFR, but I don't know if you need to give your tail number when you do. I would guess that you do. Josh ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys -- and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list Flightgear-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/flightgear-devel
