Not long ago, I was talking to a wannabe private investigator and she was dead set on going after corporate criminals. Of course private investigators try to use all the tools at their disposal, and some of them who are less than scrupulous do not always follow the code of conduct known to private eyes. Nevertheless, these days there is a ton of information online, and big data can take care of the rest. We shouldn’t be so surprising that corporate executives don’t much like being tracked, but let’s go ahead and discusses we might.
Obviously, many citizens and Internet users of social networking websites are quite concerned with all of the data tracking these days. They are worried that wherever they go with their cell phones they are being GPS’ed and tracked perhaps for reasons of marketing and advertising, but that doesn’t make it any more ethical. Many of these corporate executives, and the wealthy 1% don’t much appreciate having their corporate jet flights tracked either. Oh, you didn’t hear about that?
Well, there was an interesting article in this long debate and saga which was published in the Wall Street Journal way back on April 19, 2013 titled; “Why Jet Owners Don’t Want to Be Tracked,” by Mark Maremont and Tom McGinty. The article noted that many activists were tracking oil company executives, and we’ve also read in the past where investors were tracking corporate executives to see which cities they went to. Perhaps they might have flown to a city where there are many corporate headquarters, and this might give the investors or stock market players an idea of which companies they might be investing in.
This of course gives the stock investors an unfair advantage because whatever the target merger and acquisition might be, their stock might rise drastically. There’s money to be made there. Then there are also challenges with terrorism, and kidnappings. If a corporate jet from General Motors, General Electric, Boeing, Dow chemicals, or any of the oil companies is going to a specific airport in a specific country, those arrival times would be known because they would file a flight plan with the Federal Aviation Administration. If all of that was made public record, the terrorists or kidnappers could be waiting to kidnap the corporate executives and hold them for ransom.
Interestingly enough, you and I are more worried about someone tracking us to sell us advertising or doing a little marketing, or perhaps the future of the Gestapo where government becomes more like the visions portrayed in the movie 1984. Everyone has different reasons for not wishing to be tracked. Many movie stars, sports athletes, and even racecar drivers (as the article pointed out) are quite worried about the overzealous paparazzi and fans trying to get autographs or impede their travels.
It’s serious business, especially when it comes to corporate jet and private jet itineraries. No wonder the aviation sector is up in arms about allowing all of this information to become public. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.