Sad For AvGeeks: China Bans Flightradar24

By: Ben Schlappig

Updated: December 22, 2021
Published: November 8, 2021

29 comments

Being an aviation geek in China just became a lot less fun, as the Chinese government has reportedly banned real-time airplane tracking app Flightradar24. This is part of China’s concerns over foreign agencies accessing data in China. The Beijing Municipal National Security Bureau has allegedly decided that data-sharing services like Flightradar24 pose a security threat to military aircraft.

In 2020, it was discovered that a citizen had signed up to receive equipment from Flightradar24 in order to track aircraft. While Flightradar24 recently started moving towards satellite-based ABS-B tracking, the core of Flightradar24’s network continues to be receivers hosted by thousands of volunteers around the world. In the case of China, the person who had volunteered to help Flightradar24 had equipment seized, as the government wasn’t onboard with this.

All of this unfolded after China’s Ministry of State Security declassified an investigation into the theft of Chinese airline data by a foreign spy agency. It’s not known if Flightradar24 was used for this (in part), or if this was simply collateral damage.

Now, I’m not sure how stuff works in China, but in the United States military aircraft generally don’t show up on Flightradar24, for obvious reasons. So I can’t really see the actual security risk here, but then again, I tend to think that checking my Gmail also isn’t a major security risk, though China seems to disagree. It seems that as of now you can continue to track flights in China using Flightradar24, but I guess it’s just not possible if you’re in China.

Personally I use Flightradar24 just about every time I’m at the airport, to see what planes are arriving and departing, what traffic is like, etc. Do I need to use it? Of course not. But it sure is fun, and entertains me endlessly.

Bottom line

China has allegedly banned flight tracking app Flightradar24, over concerns of foreign organizations accessing data in China. It doesn’t seem like Flightradar24 poses much of a risk of anything, but I’m not China, so…

More discussion »

Support OMAAT

Conversations (29)

The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.

Comment as a member

Membership is free and takes no more information than commenting as a guest. Earn status points for good contributions, and see fewer ads as your status grows.

Loading comments…

Recent Comments

The latest from the OMAAT community.

Taberk Guest

July 4, 2023, 7:13 pm

I appreciate being able to check out helicopters in LA, I'm in Michigan, I think it's so cool But what isn't cool is when someone tries to explain something and another doesn't agree, so they pounce on them, vigorously because they are protected behind walls other than when face to face ppl have more respect for each other. My new neighbor antagonizes me by beeping his horn from behind walls, it got really bad , he does it because he is profiling my dogs as dangerous because they go woof woof , you know they bark. So I went straight to his cowardly face and said what's up I'm here, let's get it done coward. This worked for a few , then more antagonizing. So I drove my truck very aggressively up my dusty driveway, right to his front door and when I stopped a dust cloud had taken the seen, I was still on my property. I live back a ways but they live close to the road, I walked back to my house and hit the button on my key. Beep beep beep beep beep for days and days I did it, he works 2nd shift or 3rd but he started a cowardly game and kept trying it, now they are afraid to go outside of there house. Those are the people I fix right straight in public, I don't look for trouble, there's just to many mental ppl out there. But if you leave shitt in there pants , then they learn.

‼ 0

Fred Guest

November 12, 2021, 3:06 pm

This could very well be a clampdown on data mining. Economic data as published by the Chinese government are generally considered to be unreliable. So, economic analysts tend to resort to other date that are difficult to alter, for instance the amount of light seen by satellites at night over China. I suppose that FR24 is a valuable source for analysts making trying to make sense of the Chinese economy.

‼ 0

LVairbnbhost Guest

November 11, 2021, 2:16 pm

We just had what I think was the Blue Angels overhead in Vegas (insanely loud, whatever it was), and they weren't on FR24, but yesterday I was at the airport to check out the Virgin Atlantic 787 land and a Janet Airways plane landed, and that was on FR24. FWIW.

‼ 0

Apso Eyot Guest

November 10, 2021, 5:10 pm

Oh no. Does that mean that the airspace above China will be completely empty on FlightRadar24? Like, would it show no planes overflying it, including airlines that happen to be passing through that aren’t going to/from China?

‼ 0

ImportViking Diamond

November 10, 2021, 10:13 am

Anyone surprised? No one raises hands, as expected. Taiwan shouldn't see these planes coming! Because in such cases Flightradar's the only way to get such data, of course. As China's been acting in recent years, I guess that's not the only thing they want to hold under the cover. It's worrying.

‼ 0