Dear Australian Federal Police,

I am seeking access to documents relating to the removal, suppression, or anonymisation of aircraft data from third-party flight tracking services such as FlightRadar24, PlaneFinder, ADS-B Exchange, or similar platforms.

Specifically, I’m after:
1. Policies, procedures, or internal guidelines concerning requests to third-party services for the removal or suppression of aircraft tracking data;
2. Correspondence between your agency and third-party flight tracking platforms relating to the suppression, removal, or anonymisation of aircraft data;
3. Internal discussions, briefings, or records outlining the rationale or decisions around seeking to suppress aircraft data from public tracking platforms;
4. Statistics, reports, or summaries indicating the volume and nature of requests made to third-party platforms over the past five years;
5. Any agreements, memoranda of understanding, or formal arrangements between your agency and third-party flight tracking platforms relating to data suppression or visibility restrictions.

I am not seeking access to the personal information of members of the public, nor do I require the direct contact details or last names of public servants below the Senior Executive Service level (or equivalent for your agency).

I have submitted this request to multiple state and federal agencies. Please contact me before initiating any transfer to another agency as they may have already received an identical request.

Please consider if it’s possible to process this request informally/administratively. If you find it can’t be treated that way, please consider it a formal Freedom of Information request.

Yours faithfully,

Ben Fairless

Dear FOI Team,

Thanks for coming back to me. If the AFP has never made a request to remove/hide aircraft data from third party tracking services then I am happy to withdraw my request.

Yours sincerely,

Ben Fairless