The Federal Aviation Administration recently moved toward making flight tracking data universally available and removing a contingency in federal policy that allowed aircraft owners to block public access to flight plans. The FAA has been considering limitations on the Block Aircraft Registration Request Program for almost two years and issued a rule in May of this year that will become final at the end of this month. This link to the FAA press release is helpful for the Department of Transportation take on the issue (i.e., openness). For a take on the private aircraft lobby position, review this Center for Democracy and Technology article.
For our past commentary on this issue see our entry on aircraft registration and flight tracking, our entry on how flight tracking data can be used, and on the Wall Street Journal's effort to capture and preserve private flight tracking data before aircraft owners could seek take the data out of the public domain.