Buying guide

Keeping your private aircraft out of the flight trackers: the FAA registry opt-out, LADD, the privacy ICAO address, and what none of them can hide

Updated October 31, 2026 · Written by the House of Biz & Company Editorial Team · General information, not legal or financial advice

Discretion is one of the quiet privileges of flying your own aircraft, and since 2024 federal law has given owners real tools to protect it. Used well, they keep your name, your movements and your transponder code out of easy public view; used carelessly, they leave gaps you may not notice. Here is what each FAA program actually hides, what none of them can, and the deadline that matters before holiday travel, read from the FAA and the statute themselves.

We don’t sell, broker, charter, manage, or arrange aircraft or flights. Only for the Wealthy is a publisher. This is general information drawn from the FAA and federal law cited below, not legal, security, or aviation advice, and it doesn’t replace your flight department’s or avionics shop’s own work. Programs change; confirm the current process with the FAA before you rely on it. We are not affiliated with the FAA or with any operator, avionics maker, or call-sign provider named here, and we earn nothing from them.

Why this matters now

Discretion has always been part of what private aviation buys. Yet a business jet broadcasts its position at least once a second along with a unique code [11], the FAA registry has long published who owns each N-number, and privately owned receivers combine those broadcasts with other data shared over the internet [9]. Congress responded in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, which added a privacy section to federal aviation law (49 U.S.C. 44114) [1]. The FAA now runs three separate programs under it, and they protect three different things. The registry opt-out page was updated on August 28, 2026 [2]; the flight-tracking program’s page on October 22, 2026 [6]; and on September 3, 2026 the FAA published its notice renewing the privacy ICAO address program, estimating up to 15,000 respondents [9]. With holiday flying weeks away, timing matters: the tracking filter only changes once a month (details below). Here is what each program hides, what none of them can hide, and how to request each one, from the FAA’s own pages.

Three exposures, three different tools

An owner who wants privacy is really worried about three separate things. First, who owns the aircraft: the FAA’s public registry. Second, where the aircraft is on flight-tracking websites that take the FAA’s own data feed. Third, which aircraft it is when anyone with an inexpensive receiver picks up its ADS-B broadcast directly. The FAA itself draws the line between the last two: its tracking filter “does not impact the ADS-B broadcast data,” while the privacy ICAO address program “is intended to limit the extent to which an aircraft can be quickly and easily identified by inexpensive, commercially available receivers” [7].

Program	What it limits	What it doesn’t touch	How you ask
Registry withholding (44114(b))	Your name, address, email and phone on FAA websites [1][2]	The N-number painted on the aircraft; data shared with government agencies [1]	Signed PDF from the registered owner(s), uploaded through the FAA’s CARES system [2]
LADD (Limiting Aircraft Data Displayed)	Your aircraft’s flight data in the FAA feed that tracking websites subscribe to [6]	The ADS-B signal the aircraft broadcasts [7]	FAA online form (preferred), email or mail; takes effect on a monthly cycle [6]
Privacy ICAO address (PIA)	The link between your broadcast code and your registry record [7]	Position and track, which off-the-shelf receivers still receive; flights outside U.S.-managed airspace [7]	FAA online application, plus a third-party call sign [7][8]

Used together, the three give a private owner a meaningfully quieter profile. None of them makes an aircraft invisible, and the FAA doesn’t claim they do.

1. Taking your name off the FAA registry

Section 44114(b) told the FAA to set up, within two years of the law’s May 16, 2024 enactment, a procedure to withhold a private owner’s personally identifiable information from broad dissemination or display by the FAA, including on its public website [1][4]. The FAA opened requests on March 28, 2025 through its Civil Aviation Registry Electronic Services (CARES) [3], and the registry’s public aircraft inquiry now carries a notice that the procedure exists [5].

What counts as personal information. The statute lists the mailing or registration address, an email address, and a telephone number of an individual, and “the names of the aircraft owner or operator, if the owner or operator is an individual” [1]. Many jets are registered to a company or trust rather than a person. Read literally, the name of an entity owner isn’t on that list, so if your aircraft is held in an LLC or trust, ask the Registry how it will treat your request before assuming the entity’s name disappears.

Who qualifies. The FAA says an owner is eligible if the aircraft is used for private purposes, “meaning it is not engaged in common carriage or advertised for public hire,” and isn’t government-owned [2]. That matters for owners whose jet sits on a management company’s charter certificate to offset costs: an aircraft offered to the public for hire falls outside the FAA’s stated eligibility. Our guide to jet cards, fractional shares and charter explains how those arrangements are structured.

How to ask. Prepare a PDF stating that you are voluntarily requesting removal of your name and address from public dissemination; it must be signed by the registered owner(s), requests signed by third parties are not accepted, and it must identify the aircraft, for example by N-number and serial number [2]. Upload it through CARES; if you don’t have an account, you create one first [2]. You can reverse the choice later with a similar signed request to make the information public again [2].

What’s still being decided. When it launched the request process, the FAA said it was also evaluating whether to withhold private owners’ personal information by default and let owners download their own data when needed [3]. Its April 3, 2025 request for comment (docket FAA-2025-0638) asked exactly that, noting that FAA websites receive over 1 million visits per month for reports and aircraft inquiries [4]. As of the registry page’s August 28, 2026 update, withholding is still something you request [2]; until the FAA says otherwise, don’t assume it happens automatically.

The limits. The law speaks to dissemination by the FAA and expressly keeps data flowing to government agencies under contract or agreement, including for traffic management [1]. It doesn’t direct anyone else, so it can’t recall copies of the registry that others made before your request. And it never covered the airplane itself: no one may operate a U.S.-registered aircraft without its nationality and registration marks [12], which on a fixed-wing aircraft must generally be at least 12 inches high [13].

2. LADD: filtering the flight-tracking websites

The FAA’s Limiting Aircraft Data Displayed program (formerly called BARR) is its implementation of section 803 for flight data [6][7]. It filters your aircraft’s flight data from the FAA’s System Wide Information Management (SWIM) feed, and vendors who subscribe to that feed are bound by a Data Access User Agreement to filter LADD participants from public display [6]. The statute frames this protection around an owner’s noncommercial flights [1].

You choose one of three levels [6]:

FAA Source: the data is limited to FAA use only, so no FAA flight data on your aircraft reaches outside vendors or websites.
Subscriber Level: the data still goes to vendors, but is filtered from public display; you can arrange with a specific vendor to track your own aircraft selectively, which may involve that vendor’s fees.
Unblocking: removes earlier limits, and your flights display publicly again.

Timing is the detail that catches people. The FAA implements LADD changes on the first Thursday of each month, and requests it receives on or before the 15th of the preceding month are likely to take effect the following month; volume or an incomplete request can push that back [6]. On the 2026 calendar, the first Thursdays are November 5 and December 3, so a request filed by November 15 is the one positioned for the December cycle, ahead of holiday travel. The FAA prefers its online form; email and postal mail also work, and a written request must include the registered owner, the registration number or call sign, a contact email and telephone number, the ICAO (Mode S) address, make and model, the level you want, and a certification that you are the owner, operator, or a legally authorized representative [6].

The limit. LADD only governs the FAA’s feed. It “does not impact the ADS-B broadcast data” [7], which is what independent receiver networks collect on their own. That is the gap the third program addresses.

3. The privacy ICAO address: changing what your transponder announces

Every registered aircraft has an ICAO 24-bit address (the “Mode S code” shown in the registry), and on a 1090 MHz ADS-B installation it is openly broadcast, which, as the FAA puts it, makes the identity of the aircraft publicly available [9]. The Privacy ICAO Address (PIA) program issues an alternate, temporary address that “will not be assigned to the owner” in the Civil Aircraft Registry [7].

Who is eligible. U.S.-registered aircraft, equipped with 1090 MHz ADS-B, using a third-party call sign, flying in U.S.-managed flight information regions [7]. Dual-out installations (both 1090 MHz and UAT) are not eligible at this time [7]. Before assigning one, the FAA checks that no FAA enforcement action is open on the aircraft [7].

Why the call sign is required. Broadcasting a masked address while announcing your N-number as your flight ID would defeat the purpose. A third-party call sign keeps your radio identity private while letting the FAA identify the aircraft and operator for security requests from defense, homeland-security, or law-enforcement agencies [7]. The FAA lists FlightPlan, ForeFlight, FlightAware and ARINCDirect as sources of third-party call signs for this program [7]; the operator enters the PIA and call sign exactly as filed in the ICAO flight plan and may not change either in flight [7].

The steps [7][8]:

Get a Public ADS-B Performance Report (PAPR) showing your permanent address from a flight in ADS-B airspace within the past 180 days.
Apply on the FAA’s PIA request site; approved requests get an assignment by email within 10 business days.
Email the FAA proof of your third-party call sign from the provider.
Have the new address programmed into the transmitter, following the equipment maker’s guidance.
Within 30 days, fly in ADS-B airspace (any routine flight counts), get a new PAPR and validate it on the FAA’s verification page. Miss the 30 days and the assignment is rescinded, though the FAA may extend it if the aircraft hasn’t flown.

Living with a PIA. In the current phase there is no cost to the requester; the FAA is exploring a second phase run by a third-party provider, details undecided [7]. You may request a new address after 20 days from the previous assignment [7], and the FAA’s renewal notice adds that an operator facing real-world security concerns can change sooner [9]. A PIA stays valid as long as you want unless the FAA cancels it, addresses may be reissued to other aircraft over time, no paperwork needs to be carried aboard, and the FAA says all aircraft information associated with a PIA is exempt from FOIA requests [7]. After avionics maintenance, get a fresh PAPR to confirm the correct address is going out [7].

Where it stops. A PIA is for flights within U.S. sovereign airspace and U.S.-managed offshore and oceanic airspace. The FAA’s own examples: New York to Los Angeles, Miami to Houston, Los Angeles to Hawaii, and Boston to Miami on offshore routes are allowed; New York to London, or Minneapolis to Boston through Canadian airspace, are not [7]. Any flight leaving U.S. airspace must use the address recorded in the registry, and you may always switch back to it [7]. So the winter trip in our guide to flying private to the Bahamas is flown on your permanent code, and the eAPIS manifest tells CBP exactly who is aboard regardless.

And what it never hid. Asked whether an aircraft using a PIA still broadcasts ADS-B data that off-the-shelf receivers can pick up, the FAA answers: “Yes” [7]. A PIA makes the aircraft harder to identify quickly; it doesn’t make it invisible. Misuse, such as flying with an address assigned to another aircraft, changing it in flight, or using it with a non-performing emitter, is a compliance violation of 14 CFR 91.227, can cost you the assignment, and after reassignment failing to fly on your registered address brings enforcement action [7].

Why you can’t simply switch it off

Some owners ask whether the transponder can just be turned off. The rule is plain: an aircraft equipped with ADS-B Out must operate it in transmit mode at all times, unless the FAA has authorized otherwise for a sensitive government mission or ATC directs otherwise [10]. The broadcast must include the aircraft’s assigned ICAO address and its flight identification [11]. The regulation does let a pilot using a UAT (978 MHz) unit with a self-assigned temporary address omit both, but only when no flight plan has been filed and no ATC services are requested [11]. That exception doesn’t fit a jet on an instrument flight plan, and in Class A airspace, the high-altitude airspace where jets cruise, the required equipment is the 1090 MHz type [10].

A different N-number, and the program still to come

Section 44114(c) also directs the FAA to create a program for owners to apply for a new ICAO aircraft identification code, on an attestation of a safety or security need, with the N-number updated to match [1]. We didn’t find a separate application process for it on the FAA pages cited here, so ask the Registry before counting on it. What does exist is the long-standing N-number change: a signed letter describing the aircraft, $10 for the number change and $10 for a special number if you want a particular one; the FAA then sends AC Form 8050-64, you return it within five days of placing the new marks, and within ten days you take the duplicate and your airworthiness certificate to a Flight Standards District Office for a revised certificate [14]. That FAA page was last updated June 22, 2022, so confirm the current fees. A new number changes what is painted on the tail; it doesn’t by itself withhold your name from the registry, which is still the separate request in section 1.

Your checklist

Decide which exposure worries you most: ownership, the tracking websites, or the broadcast itself. Most private owners want all three addressed.
Confirm the aircraft is used privately and isn’t on a charter certificate or advertised for hire before requesting registry withholding [2].
If the aircraft is held in an LLC or trust, ask the Registry how it treats an entity owner’s name [1].
Have every registered owner sign the CARES withholding request; a manager or broker can’t sign it for you [2].
File the LADD request with the full owner, aircraft and ICAO-address details; filing by November 15 positions it for the December 3 cycle [6].
For a PIA, get a current PAPR, arrange a third-party call sign, and schedule the avionics work and the verification flight inside the 30-day window [7][8].
Brief your pilots: switch back to the registered address before any flight leaving U.S.-managed airspace, never change the PIA or call sign in flight, and keep the transponder transmitting [7][10].
Remember what stays public: the 12-inch marks on the aircraft, data shared with government agencies, and any copies others made earlier [1][12][13].

Frequently asked questions

Can I remove my name from the FAA aircraft registry?

Yes, if the aircraft is used privately. Since March 28, 2025, private owners can ask the FAA through its CARES system to withhold their name, address and other contact details from FAA websites. The request must be a signed PDF from the registered owner(s) identifying the aircraft; aircraft in common carriage or advertised for public hire aren’t eligible [2][3].

What is LADD, and how long does it take?

LADD (Limiting Aircraft Data Displayed) is the FAA program that filters your aircraft’s flight data from the FAA feed used by participating flight-tracking websites. The FAA processes changes on the first Thursday of each month; requests received by the 15th of the prior month are likely to take effect the next month [6].

Does LADD stop all flight tracking?

Not by itself. The FAA says LADD “does not impact the ADS-B broadcast data,” which independent receivers collect directly. The Privacy ICAO Address program is the FAA’s tool for that, and even with it, off-the-shelf receivers still pick up the aircraft’s ADS-B data [7].

Can I use a privacy ICAO address on an international flight?

No. A PIA is only for flights within U.S. sovereign airspace and U.S.-managed offshore and oceanic airspace. Any flight leaving that airspace, including routes through Canadian airspace, must use the ICAO address recorded in the FAA registry [7].