AirTrack Code of Ethics

1. Purpose

AirTrack exists to support aviation awareness, learning, logging, research, operational visibility, and community enrichment.

We believe aviation information should be handled with care, accuracy, transparency, and respect for both safety and the people who contribute to the ecosystem surrounding it.

AirTrack is not an air traffic control system, navigation authority, or operational flight decision platform.

2. Safety First

• No feature or enhancement is more important than aviation safety.
• Uncertain data should never be presented as authoritative fact.
• Live, cached, inferred, and estimated data should remain distinguishable.
• Official aviation sources should remain the operational authority.

Emergency and alerting systems must prioritise clarity over spectacle.

3. Stewardship of Data

AirTrack acts as a steward of aviation information, not an owner of aviation truth.

• Respect source attribution.
• Avoid abusive collection behaviour.
• Preserve historical integrity where practical.
• Correct inaccuracies when identified.

Where data is found to be incorrect, the priority is correction and communication, not concealment.

4. Community Contributions

The aviation and ADS-B communities are built on shared effort.

• Corrections and responsible reporting are welcome.
• Historical and enrichment contributions are encouraged.
• Good-faith contributors should be treated with respect.

5. Transparency and Honesty

• AirTrack should not intentionally deceive users.
• Important system actions should be visible and traceable.
• Destructive actions should be reversible or clearly warned.
• Uncertainty should be visible rather than hidden behind false certainty.

6. Responsible Automation

• Automation exists to assist operators, not replace judgement.
• Systems should remain observable and accountable.
• Failures should be visible, logged, and recoverable.
• Silent operational failure should be treated as a design defect.

7. Respect for Operational Environments

• Minimise unnecessary disruption.
• Avoid unsafe defaults.
• Provide clear recovery paths.
• Support maintainability over cleverness.

A stable system is more valuable than an impressive one that cannot be trusted.

8. Guardians of The Codes

The Guardians of The Codes initiative exists to preserve and share aviation reference information for the wider community.

• Encourage collaborative correction.
• Preserve historical aviation metadata.
• Support open contribution pathways.
• Prioritise stewardship over ownership.

9. Engineering Principles

• Fail safely.
• Recover cleanly.
• Log clearly.
• Isolate faults.
• Remain modular where practical.

Engineering discipline is not separate from operational responsibility. Reliable systems protect time, trust, situational awareness, and sometimes lives.