Public information or not, that doesn't make it ethical. It would be different if it tracked other celebrities also. It's a personal attack. I don't know why I have to explain why it would be a safety threat, but sure. Someone who wanted to do harm to Elon having easy access to his whereabouts at all time? Put yourself in his shoes. Would that make you feel more or less safe? And these days, someone wanting to harm him is not a far fetched idea. I don't care that it's public information, most people wouldn't even know that it is, let alone where to find and parse the data. Just because you can publish information like this doesn't mean it's ethical, or it doesn't directly effect someone's well being.
Why do people arguing this point keep repeating the lie that the account tracked Elon "at all time" or similar?
The account only posted the location of Elon's private jet, which I'm pretty confident is not a threat unless an attacker has a surface to air missile ready.
Nobody said it tracked him all the time, "but it gave real time updates of where his jet took off and landed. It would be pretty easy for a crazy person to wait outside the airport with a gun and follow him. Why would you need a missile.
So because a Twitter is single purpose its bad? If the twitter account followed two peoples private jets would that be enough? Or does it need to be a whole sale repost of the entire flight tracking feed? Can the person parse ANY flight data from this type of a Twitter account? Where do you draw your arbitrary line here?
This entire premise is so very weak to me. Elon is famous and a public figure and it's his own choice that people have as much interest in him as they do. He does everything he can to be in the public eye. There are tons of plane tracking accounts or applications. There is even one that tracks AF1 which carries one of the most powerful and important people in the world.
And this isn't a location tracker. This account doesn't follow Elon around and Tweet where he's headed once he lands, how long he might be staying, where he went for lunch, etc. And Elon can use completely legal methods to reduce how much of this information is publicly available.
> Just because you can publish information like this doesn't mean it's ethical
And just because some actions MIGHT have negative outcomes doesn't mean they are unethical.
Elon has all the tools to avoid being tracked by a random flight tracking service. If he doesn't use those tools then he doesn't care that much about his privacy. He posts images of him sleeping in the Twitter HQ, which has a publicly listed address. We aren't talking about some powerless individual who is having big companies abuse their privacy.
I don't disagree with your point but this aciton puts a dent into his "free speech absolutist" position which he vigorously embraces. Being an Absolutist is probably fun position to take, but in real life nuance can make things challenging.
The college student behind the account also tracks the private jets of other prominent individuals, including Bill Gates, Trump, Bezos, and a slew of Russian oligarchs. It should be noted that at the time I'm publishing this comment, other private jet tracking accounts (e.g. @CelebJets) remain active, suggesting that this policy of protecting privacy is being selectively applied.
"Having easy access to his whereabouts at all times" is hyperbole. Only his jet is being tracked, not his physical location at all times.
> ""Having easy access to his whereabouts at all times" is hyperbole. Only his jet is being tracked, not his physical location at all times. "
But knowing when he leaves a city and arrives at another is half the battle. A bad actor who wants to do him harm now know he just landed back in Austin. So if they were planning an attack, they could then try follow him from the airport, find him at home, Twitter HQ et cetera.
And for the record, to me this isn't about Elon. I don't support any of those accounts. I don't care if it's Brad Pitt, Bezos, POTUS, or my next door neighbor, it's Doxxing and it shouldn't be tolerated.
I shouldn't have to, it's pretty obvious. But sure, if I were a crazy person hell bent on harming Elon, then that account gives me precise times and locations where I could find him and chase him down with a gun. Or hey, look. Elon landed back in Austin tonight, so I could probably find him at home, or leaving the airport soon. The Austin airport is not that big.
I honestly was unaware, but it has been pointed out to me that Elon even said as much in a tweet from 11/6. He explicitly said it's a direct threat to his personal safety. Sure, in the same tweet he said he would allow the account to continue, but I think that's a perfectly fine thing to change your mind on. I would never wish anyone's safety be put at risk for a dumb Doxxing account in the name of free speech
This guy has been actively trying to make enemies to garner a few "hello there fellow kids" points, actively uses every trick in the book to make sure he not only has to pay zilch in taxes, but draws the maximum in benefits, being one of the richest people on the planet and continuously taking credit for things he at best funded, at worst didn't do anything for. Meanwhile he's throwing up a gigantic smokescreen and misleading people in ways that benefit his company while being disastrous for the environment, and has the gall to show his ideas as some kind of divine intellect.
An account functioning as an event hub for public information regarding his jet is about the least he has to worry about once the chickens come home to roost. If the location alone was that bad, he could give a warning and ask the account to only post climate-related info. These are the people shaming you at every corner and ready to push you under the bus the moment something dares to scratch their empire.
Nothing about their existence is ethical. People defending them under the guise of 'ethics' is exactly how they got there.
