Jack Sweeney's "Elon Musk's Jet" Twitter account reports where Elon's Jet is (and Elon), in realtime.
~ Aristotle Sabouni |
There’s a few problems here: (1) The kid isn’t wrong to build his social media fame, by creating an Elon’s Jet tracker. And it’s certainly worth more than $5K for the time and effort and value the kid gets. (2) Elon isn’t wrong for having a problem with this invasion of his privacy and threat to his security. (3) If Elon pays $50K to remove the tracker, that makes it more than enough financial incentives for other people to create an Elon’s Jet tracker, as the going value to take it down is worth more than the time/cost to create it. So Elon shouldn’t pay $50K or they’ll just get more.
The problem here is with the U.S. government (as usual) to require this data to be public. So as is almost always the case, "a good idea" turns bad over time.
Solution: You can solve this by anonymizing which flight belongs to which plane. Still track planes/flights, while offering each of them a randomized key, so you don’t know which flight belongs with which plane, unless they choose to share that information. Then you can still track flights — just not individuals private aircraft. But there's little political motivation to fix things that only hurt a few people.
| Elon could join a jet pool that has a fleet of aircraft that many people fly on, so you don’t know which is his. But then he can’t benefit from the efficiencies of self managed, or the personalization of having his own jet to spec. |
| 🗒️ Note: |
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| If I thought it was about blackmail, I’d have a problem with it.
To me, it is more that the kid did it as personal interest, the challenge, and to get fame/attention. (Self-interest, not harming others). Now he’s left with a business choice — is it worth giving that up for $5K? I doubt it. And he’s probably getting say >$10K/year in advertising/attention — so a 5 year break-even is reasonable. For $50K he’d do it. That’s a reasonable position. But of course that’s all what’s in his mind/heart. So I’m projecting intent. I do agree the risk to Elon makes one think. And at my age, I wouldn’t choose that path. But as a teenager, I’m pretty sure this has little to do with Elon in his mind, and is all about what’s legal, and what’s in his self interest. I also think the proper fix, in the long run, is to fix the agencies openness. Public information should have limits. |
🔗 More
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🔗 Links
- https://insideevs.com/news/564596/musk-jettracker-creator-refuses-5000usd/
- https://www.cnet.com/news/elon-musk-private-jet-twitter-account-is-turning-into-a-business/
