Suppression of Aircraft Data from Third-Party Flight Tracking Platforms
Ben Fairless made this Freedom of Information request to Airservices Australia as part of a batch sent to 15 authorities
Dear Airservices Australia,
I am seeking access to documents relating to the removal, suppression, or anonymisation of aircraft data from third-party flight tracking services such as FlightRadar24, PlaneFinder, ADS-B Exchange, or similar platforms.
Specifically, I’m after:
1. Policies, procedures, or internal guidelines concerning requests to third-party services for the removal or suppression of aircraft tracking data;
2. Correspondence between your agency and third-party flight tracking platforms relating to the suppression, removal, or anonymisation of aircraft data;
3. Internal discussions, briefings, or records outlining the rationale or decisions around seeking to suppress aircraft data from public tracking platforms;
4. Statistics, reports, or summaries indicating the volume and nature of requests made to third-party platforms over the past five years;
5. Any agreements, memoranda of understanding, or formal arrangements between your agency and third-party flight tracking platforms relating to data suppression or visibility restrictions.
I am not seeking access to the personal information of members of the public, nor do I require the direct contact details or last names of public servants below the Senior Executive Service level (or equivalent for your agency).
I have submitted this request to multiple state and federal agencies. Please contact me before initiating any transfer to another agency as they may have already received an identical request.
Please consider if it’s possible to process this request informally/administratively. If you find it can’t be treated that way, please consider it a formal Freedom of Information request.
Yours faithfully,
Ben Fairless
OFFICIAL
Dear Mr Fairless
Freedom of Information Request no. F25-23
I refer to your request for access to documents held by Airservices
relating to the removal, suppression, or anonymisation of aircraft data
from third-party flight tracking services under the Freedom of Information
Act 1982 (FOI Act).
We would like to clarify parts of your FOI request highlighted in yellow
below. Please review and confirm or provide additional information as
necessary.
Scope of request – to be confirmed by applicant
Seek access to documents that cover or include the following:
a. Any current policies, procedures, or internal guidelines concerning
requests to third-party platform services such as FlightRadar24,
PlaneFinder, ADS-B Exchange etc, for the removal, suppression or
anonymisation of aircraft tracking data;
b. Any statistics, reports, or summaries indicating the volume and nature
of requests from third-party flight tracking platforms to Airservices
to suppress, remove, or anonymise aircraft tracking data for the
period 23 April 2020 to 23 April 2025;
c. Any current agreements, memoranda of understanding, or formal
arrangements between Airservices and third-party flight tracking
platforms relating to data suppression or visibility restrictions;
d. For the period [insert date range], any:
i. correspondence between Airservices and third-party flight tracking
platforms relating to the suppression, removal, or anonymisation of
aircraft tracking data;
ii. internal discussions, briefings, or records outlining the rationale or
decisions around seeking to suppress aircraft tracking data from
public tracking platforms;
e. The following information is excluded from the scope of the request on
the basis this information is not relevant:
i. personal information of Airservices’ staff below SES (or equivalent)
(e.g. names, contact details, position titles, signatures etc)
ii. personal information of any third party (e.g. names, contact details,
position titles, signatures etc).
We received your request on 23 April 2025 and the 30-day statutory period
for processing your request commenced from the day after that date. You
should expect a decision from us by Friday 23 May 2025 unless the period
of 30 days is extended (e.g. if we need to consult third parties or for
other reasons). We will advise you if this happens.
Unless you advise otherwise by reply email, duplicate documents will be
excluded under section 22(1)(b)(ii) of the FOI Act on the basis this
information is not relevant to the scope of your request.
Please respond to the queries regarding the scope of your request by COB
Monday 11 May 2025
Yours sincerely
Kathryn
Freedom of Information
Email [Airservices request email]
GPO Box 367, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia
Important: This message may contain confidential or legally privileged
information. If you think it was sent to you by mistake, please delete all
copies and inform the sender.
OFFICIAL
OFFICIAL
Dear Mr Fairless
We have not heard back in relation to our email below.
An FOI request must provide such information as is reasonably necessary to
enable Airservices FOI to identify the document that is requested (s
15(2)(b) of the FOI Act).
The reason we are seeking clarity is because your FOI request is too vague
as you have not specified a relevant timeframe or clarified whether all
parts of your request relate to third-party flight tracking services.
Please review the revised request and yellow highlight below and if
comfortable, please populate date ranges etc by reply email by COB
tomorrow, 22 May 2025.
Kind regards
Kathryn
OFFICIAL
From: MBX FOI <[Airservices request email]>
Sent: Tuesday, 6 May 2025 1:04 PM
To: Ben Fairless <[FOI #13068 email]>
Cc: MBX FOI <[Airservices request email]>
Subject: FOI 25-23 - acknowledgment and clarification
OFFICIAL
Dear Mr Fairless
Freedom of Information Request no. F25-23
I refer to your request for access to documents held by Airservices
relating to the removal, suppression, or anonymisation of aircraft data
from third-party flight tracking services under the Freedom of Information
Act 1982 (FOI Act).
We would like to clarify parts of your FOI request highlighted in yellow
below. Please review and confirm or provide additional information as
necessary.
Scope of request – to be confirmed by applicant
Seek access to documents that cover or include the following:
a. Any current policies, procedures, or internal guidelines concerning
requests to third-party platform services such as FlightRadar24,
PlaneFinder, ADS-B Exchange etc, for the removal, suppression or
anonymisation of aircraft tracking data;
b. Any statistics, reports, or summaries indicating the volume and nature
of requests from third-party flight tracking platforms to Airservices
to suppress, remove, or anonymise aircraft tracking data for the
period 23 April 2020 to 23 April 2025;
c. Any current agreements, memoranda of understanding, or formal
arrangements between Airservices and third-party flight tracking
platforms relating to data suppression or visibility restrictions;
d. For the period [insert date range], any:
i. correspondence between Airservices and third-party flight tracking
platforms relating to the suppression, removal, or anonymisation of
aircraft tracking data;
ii. internal discussions, briefings, or records outlining the rationale or
decisions around seeking to suppress aircraft tracking data from
public tracking platforms;
e. The following information is excluded from the scope of the request on
the basis this information is not relevant:
i. personal information of Airservices’ staff below SES (or equivalent)
(e.g. names, contact details, position titles, signatures etc)
ii. personal information of any third party (e.g. names, contact details,
position titles, signatures etc).
We received your request on 23 April 2025 and the 30-day statutory period
for processing your request commenced from the day after that date. You
should expect a decision from us by Friday 23 May 2025 unless the period
of 30 days is extended (e.g. if we need to consult third parties or for
other reasons). We will advise you if this happens.
Unless you advise otherwise by reply email, duplicate documents will be
excluded under section 22(1)(b)(ii) of the FOI Act on the basis this
information is not relevant to the scope of your request.
Please respond to the queries regarding the scope of your request by COB
Monday 11 May 2025
Yours sincerely
Kathryn
Freedom of Information
Email [1][Airservices request email]
GPO Box 367, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia
Important: This message may contain confidential or legally privileged
information. If you think it was sent to you by mistake, please delete all
copies and inform the sender.
OFFICIAL
Dear Kathryn,
Thanks for your message and I’m really sorry it’s taken me so long to reply. To keep everything nice and easy I’m happy to withdraw my original request and re-submit it, essentially restarting the clock.
This request was made using Right to Know (https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/1...) and it’s not possible to see what you’ve highlighted. Can you let me know what you want changed?
Yours sincerely,
Ben Fairless
OFFICIAL
Dear Mr Fairless
No problem at all. Thank you for your offer to withdraw your original
request (F25-23) and re-submit which we would like to accept please.
Our previous correspondence regarding your original scope requested
specific timeframes and sought clarity on parts of the request. I have
pasted our interpretation of your original scope below and included our
additional wording in double square brackets.
Seek access to documents that cover or include the following:
a. Any [[current]] policies, procedures, or internal guidelines
concerning requests to third-party [[flight tracking platform]]
services such as FlightRadar24, PlaneFinder, ADS-B Exchange etc, for
the removal, suppression or anonymisation of aircraft tracking data;
b. Any statistics, reports, or summaries indicating the volume and nature
of requests made [[by Airservices]] to third-party flight tracking
platforms [[to suppress, remove, or anonymise aircraft tracking data
for the period 23 April 2020 to 23 April 2025]];
c. Any [[current]] agreements, memoranda of understanding, or formal
arrangements between Airservices and third-party flight tracking
platforms relating to data suppression or visibility restrictions;
d. For the period [[insert date range]], any:
i. correspondence between Airservices and third-party flight tracking
platforms relating to the suppression, removal, or anonymisation of
aircraft tracking data;
ii. internal discussions, briefings, or records outlining the rationale or
decisions around seeking to suppress aircraft tracking data from
public tracking platforms;
e. The following information is excluded from the scope of the request on
the basis this information is not relevant:
i. personal information of Airservices’ staff below SES (or equivalent)
(e.g. names, contact details, position titles, signatures etc)
ii. personal information of any [[third party]] (e.g. names, contact
details, position titles, signatures etc).
Kind regards
Kathryn
OFFICIAL
OFFICIAL
Good morning, Mr Fairless
If possible, would you mind confirming by reply email that you withdraw
request F25-23 dated 23 April 2025 please.
Please also confirm whether you’d like us to continue work with you to
refine the scope of the request with a view to registering the refined
scope as a new request.
If we have not heard back from you by COB Wednesday 18 June 2025 we will
consider F25-23 is withdrawn.
Kind regards
Kathryn
[1]Website
Freedom of Information
Email [Airservices request email]
GPO Box 367, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia
Important: This message may contain confidential or legally privileged
information. If you think it was sent to you by mistake, please delete all
copies and inform the sender.
OFFICIAL
From: MBX FOI <[Airservices request email]>
Sent: Wednesday, 4 June 2025 3:29 PM
To: Ben Fairless <[FOI #13068 email]>
Cc: MBX FOI <[Airservices request email]>
Subject: RE: FOI 25-23 - acknowledgment and clarification
OFFICIAL
Dear Mr Fairless
No problem at all. Thank you for your offer to withdraw your original
request (F25-23) and re-submit which we would like to accept please.
Our previous correspondence regarding your original scope requested
specific timeframes and sought clarity on parts of the request. I have
pasted our interpretation of your original scope below and included our
additional wording in double square brackets.
Seek access to documents that cover or include the following:
a. Any [[current]] policies, procedures, or internal guidelines
concerning requests to third-party [[flight tracking platform]]
services such as FlightRadar24, PlaneFinder, ADS-B Exchange etc, for
the removal, suppression or anonymisation of aircraft tracking data;
b. Any statistics, reports, or summaries indicating the volume and nature
of requests made [[by Airservices]] to third-party flight tracking
platforms [[to suppress, remove, or anonymise aircraft tracking data
for the period 23 April 2020 to 23 April 2025]];
c. Any [[current]] agreements, memoranda of understanding, or formal
arrangements between Airservices and third-party flight tracking
platforms relating to data suppression or visibility restrictions;
d. For the period [[insert date range]], any:
i. correspondence between Airservices and third-party flight tracking
platforms relating to the suppression, removal, or anonymisation of
aircraft tracking data;
ii. internal discussions, briefings, or records outlining the rationale or
decisions around seeking to suppress aircraft tracking data from
public tracking platforms;
e. The following information is excluded from the scope of the request on
the basis this information is not relevant:
i. personal information of Airservices’ staff below SES (or equivalent)
(e.g. names, contact details, position titles, signatures etc)
ii. personal information of any [[third party]] (e.g. names, contact
details, position titles, signatures etc).
Kind regards
Kathryn
OFFICIAL