Chamath Palihapitiya says he's faced privacy concerns over jet-tracking like Elon Musk, and would co

October 2024 ยท 4 minute read

Redeem now

Chamath Palihapitiya said he's dealt with privacy concerns similar to Elon Musk's jet-tracking issue "multiple times" in the past.

This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.

For Palihapitiya, the question on how he'd deal with it if it became too much boils down to a simple question: Do you ditch flying private and find a more anonymous form of travel instead?

"I'm not nearly as important as Elon is, but it feels the same when you're in the middle of it," Palihapitiya said on the "All-In" podcast. "It feels pretty terrorizing. That being said, I think the real decision for somebody like me is that if it's too much, is frankly just to get rid of it and to find a different mode of transportation that's a little bit more anonymous."

Palihapitiya, the CEO and founder of venture capital company Social Capital, said the reason he would consider opting for different transportation is because the other option would be going to the government to change the law surrounding flight information, "which they're not going to do." Thousands of commercial and private flights around the world are public and can be found on online tracker ADS-B Exchange. The tracker uses flight information transmitted by federal law, to show flights. 

Palihapitiya was discussing the @ElonJet account from Twitter, which tracks Musk's private jet and was suspended from the platform Thursday, on the "All-In" podcast that he co-hosts with Jason Calacanis, David Sacks, and David Friedberg. Palihapitiya did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment ahead of publication seeking additional information on his past experiences with publicly tracked flight information.

Friedberg, an angel investor and entrepreneur, said he thought banning the @ElonJet account, "was a bad decision."

"The least generous statement would be that it represents deep hypocrisy," Friedberg said. "Not just a few weeks ago did he say he would never delete that account, but he also said he was buying Twitter to enable freedom of speech and freedom of expression and that he wouldn't come in and do the same sort of content moderation that was done by the old regime."

Friedberg said Musk took over and did the same thing as "the old regime," by taking the rules and moderation policies and finding "a way to use them to make some editorialized decisions that he thought was appropriate."

Friedberg said a "more generous" view would be that that Musk is "trying to protect people where there's some loophole or some law that doesn't seem right morally, but it is the law, and it is what it is."

Jack Sweeney, the college student who runs @ElonJet, was also banned from Twitter, and Musk has threatened legal action against him and others on Twitter "who supported harm to my family."

"I'm not really concerned because a tweet is just a tweet, you know?" Sweeney told Insider on Thursday. "From what I see, there isn't much ground for him to stand on and that's the opinion of a lot of people." 

In a Twitter Space Thursday night with suspended journalists and Sweeney, Musk reiterated his point that accounts who "dox" people will be suspended. The journalists pushed back on the characterization that they had participated in any doxing, and Musk eventually left the conversation.

You can watch the full debate in the episode below.

 

 

A picture of a switch and lightbulb Sign up for notifications from Insider! Stay up to date with what you want to know. Subscribe to push notifications

Watch: Exclusive interview with Elon Musk on Twitter fame, loneliness, and the future of AI

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7o8HSoqWeq6Oeu7S1w56pZ5ufonyktMCmmK2gXaWurbXHmqeirJmurm67zWanq6GmlsGmecmeq2asopawrLXNoGSepJ%2Bjeq7B0qRko6elp7uiuMisq6xlo6rAsbHNrKCopqNif3F%2BkWZoaw%3D%3D