> If it's public info by law then referring to it as private seems very misleading, wouldn't you say?
But it's not public information by law. It's private information:
https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/technology/equipadsb/privacy
The aircraft tracking data itself is public, but what's not public is the information which links the temporary aircraft identifier to its owner when the owner is using that privacy program, which is the case for Elon: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1603803508087537665
