Taylor Swift Jet Trackers Rely on Mandatory ADS-B Broadcasts; FAA Privacy Tools Cannot Switch Them Off
Why It MattersMandatory ADS-B Out leaves business-jet owners seeking privacy with registry-level and address-masking workarounds only, since none of the available tools stops the broadcast itself from reaching volunteer receivers.
Taylor Swift's Dassault Falcon 7X is tracked publicly because U.S. federal rules require the aircraft to broadcast its own identity, position, altitude and speed, unencrypted, to any receiver in range. Since January 1, 2020, 14 CFR 91.225 has required ADS-B Out in Class A, B and C airspace and in Class E airspace at and above 10,000 feet over the 48 contiguous states. The equipment must operate in transmit mode at all times, with exceptions only for sensitive government missions or when air traffic control directs otherwise. Under 14 CFR 91.227, the message carries latitude and longitude, among other data.
The issue became public in July 2022, when marketing agency Yard ranked celebrity jets by estimated emissions and said Swift's jet made 170 flights between January 1 and July 29, 2022. Her spokesperson replied that the jet is loaned out regularly to other individuals and that attributing most or all of the trips to her was incorrect. In late December 2023, lawyers from the law firm Venable sent a cease-and-desist letter to Jack Sweeney, a University of Central Florida student whose automated accounts posted celebrity jet flights, calling the tracking a life-or-death matter. Trackers post when a jet lands, not who is aboard; Sweeney acknowledged in December 2024 that it is not known whether Swift is on the plane.
The FAA's two privacy tools work around the broadcast rather than stopping it. The LADD program only filters the FAA's data feed, and subscribing flight-tracking sites agree to hide LADD aircraft, but the FAA says LADD does not affect the ADS-B broadcast data. The PIA program gives an owner an alternate, temporary ICAO address that is not assigned to the owner in the registry, flown with a third-party call sign. Hobbyist networks such as ADS-B Exchange, fed by volunteers with inexpensive receivers, display the unfiltered data.
Section 803 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 (Public Law 118-63) lets private aircraft owners ask the FAA to withhold their name and address from public display on FAA websites, and the FAA began accepting such requests electronically through its Civil Aviation Registry Electronic Services (CARES) on March 28, 2025. Swift's Falcon 7X, serial number 27, built in 2009, remains on the U.S. register, but its public record no longer names an owner. Since February 2026 it has carried a new registration mark, and N621MM has been reserved by Island Jet Inc. of Nashville since February 10, 2026.
Her older Falcon 900, serial number 95, flew as N898TS. The FAA issued its new registration certificate to Triangle Real Estate LLC of Saint Peters, Missouri, on February 6, 2024, and S.A.T.A. LLC of Nashville reserved the N898TS mark on June 4, 2024.
