united-states privacy freedom-of-speech aviation faa
Are sites that give unfiltered ADS-B data legal?
<p>Are plane tracking services such as ADS-B Exchange and TheAirTraffic that do not honor the FAA's Limited Aircraft Data Display program legal to use?</p>
<p>Is it legal to operate a feeder station for one of these?</p>
<p>Is it legal to run one of these services?</p>
<p>In other words, is LADD enforceable?</p>

<p>Section 566 (&quot;RIGHT TO PRIVACY WHEN USING AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL
SYSTEM&quot;, page 3385) of <a href="https://www.congress.gov/115/plaws/publ254/PLAW-115publ254.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the 2018 FAA Reauthorization Act</a>, the law which created LADD, says,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Administrator
shall, upon request of a private aircraft owner or operator, block
the registration number of the aircraft of the owner or operator
from any public dissemination or display, except in data made
available to a Government agency, for the noncommercial flights
of the owner or operator.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This says nothing about creating legal obligations for anyone except the FAA Administrator, so it seems that LADD is not binding on anyone except the FAA.</p>
<p>There is one case in which LADD is binding: <a href="https://www.faa.gov/pilots/ladd" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the FAA's page on LADD</a> says,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Vendors who subscribe to FAA SWIM [System-Wide Information Management] Data feeds are bound by a Data Access User Agreement to filter any LADD participant from public display of aircraft flight data.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Thus, flight trackers using FAA SWIM data are required to comply with LADD, even if they obtain data on the aircraft from another source.</p>
<p>The wording of the FAA's site also implies that compliance is not mandatory for trackers that do not have agreements with the FAA to use SWIM data.</p>
