In 2022, University of Central Florida freshman Jack Sweeney enjoyed a moment of fame for exposing the private-jet-setting lifestyles of the world’s rich and famous, including Elon Musk and Taylor Swift. Using publicly available flight data, Sweeney programmed bots to automatically track the flight activity of these celebrities’ private jets and publish their travels on Twitter. Using accounts like @ElonJet, Sweeney drew attention to the high-emission habits of celebrities that had previously flown under the radar, but he also provoked the enmity of some of the world’s most powerful and prominent figures. After a series of Twitter bans and threats by lawyers representing Musk and Swift, Sweeney acceded to a 24-hour delay in publishing the celebrities’ whereabouts.

Now, Congress has heard their complaints. Section 803 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, signed into law last month, requires the FAA to establish “a process by which, upon request of a private aircraft owner or operator, the administrator withholds the registration number and other similar identifiable data or information … for the noncommercial flights of the owner or operator.” The law also requires the FAA to establish “a procedure by which, upon request of a private aircraft owner or operator, the administrator shall withhold from broad dissemination or display by the FAA … the personally identifiable information of such individual, including on a publicly available website of the FAA.” Despite this, Musk, Swift, and countless other frequent fliers on private planes would do well to remember that the public is not the only one watching their flying habits.