paulplatt

The FAA is ending the Block Aircraft Registration Request, BARR, program. This program allowed flight information of general aviation aircraft to be blocked from viewing by the general public. The elimination of this program is not an issue of national security. At all times, government agencies had access to the blocked flight information. Some will see this as a strike against corporate CEO’s cavorting about in corporate jets. In reality it is another blow to privacy for all of us. No longer can a celebrity block flight information to prevent a stalker from tracking a flight. This won’t directly affect most of us. I have never made use of the BARR program. Despite that I mourn the passing of one more bit of privacy. Bringing this closer to home is an idea that keeps popping up and that is taxing automobiles based on how many miles they are driven. This isn’t new. It has been proposed before. What isn’t mentioned is how this would be done. GPS tracking is the usual answer. This means the potential to have the government tracking everywhere you go. Now do you feel a little more sympathetic to those people losing the right to limit tracking of their aircraft?