Hi Peter,
Your answer makes – as always ! – a lot of sense. So let me break it down.
Plane spotters don’t bother me too much. The last time I have seen one was years ago in Holland (Teuge I think). Since then, no spotting spotter anywhere. That is probably just pure luck. But they seem to crowd around airfields like Teuge where cows and anybody else can walk across the rwy, and when the taxiway doesn’t pass right in front of the café they get quickly bored I guess ;)
But this story of big lenses and face shots, I agree, that is unpleasant.
More annoying wrt privacy is big brother executed by a private business for money, as in the case of FR24. Luckily, if I read correctly (?) it works better on ADSBout (which I don’t have) than on mode-S.
Remains the question, how does one opt-out? Anybody any idea ?
Personally, I would not bother worrying about someone making money out of me. That’s what Google and FB etc do all day long 
Peter wrote:
That is true for the FR24 phone app. AFAICT it cannot retrieve any logs; not that I have spent time on trying it.
You can see history on the mobile apps:
alioth wrote:
Of course not – government exempts itself from all the parts of GDPR it finds inconvenient, while enforcing it on everyone else :-)
Is this an opinion or a statement of fact?
it works better on ADSBout (which I don’t have) than on mode-S.
That’s true, but in practice most flights done with Mode S show up, except very low level portions, which depending on where the receiving stations are, terrain, etc, might be below say 2000ft. Albania is poorly covered
You can see history on the mobile apps:
Interesting. My android app, showing “Silver”, has no obvious function for this.
Remains the question, how does one opt-out? Anybody any idea ?
As suggested above, you write to them. But that does (if it works) just FR24. The other tracking sites don’t offer this facility. For example during the “Gatwick drone crisis” you could track the police helicopter in real time, looking for the drone pilot. One would think the heli would turn off its transponder, given that the airport was shut anyway
Peter wrote:
My android app, showing “Silver”, has no obvious function for this.
On iOS, you select the aircraft, then press the corporal’s chevron “More info”/“Less info” in the middle, and scroll up. Not exactly intuitive.
Is eavesdropping on ADS-B broadcasts in UK not an offence according to section 48 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006
Well, this section exempts you if somebody else is already doing it 
A person commits an offence under this section consisting in the disclosure of information only if the information disclosed by him is information that would not have come to his knowledge but for the use of wireless telegraphy apparatus by him or by another person.
Hmmm, whoops, I think I have misread the multiple double negatives
Basically the UK has a law which makes it illegal to pick up anything which was not transmitted to you personally.
On iOS, you select the aircraft, then press the corporal’s chevron “More info”/“Less info” in the middle, and scroll up. Not exactly intuitive.
I can’t see this on the droid version.
I have a pro sub for fr24 (yes, it’s an addiction haha). PM your reg and I can see what’s stored.
Yes, playback is available for individual flights in our mobile apps and also on our website. To see individual flight histories, select or search for a flight or aircraft and choose the particular flight that interests you.
How far back in time you may go depends on your subscription level. All users have free access to 7 days of flight history, Silver subscribers may access 90 days, Gold subscribers 365 days and Business subscribers up to 730 days.
On our website, we also offer the possibility of using the Global playback feature, which allows you to choose a particular area on the map, date and time to view tracked aircraft. We are unable to assist in searches for historical flights.
Just says “our mobile apps”.
