https://ussoaringteams.org/news/

https://ussoaringteams.org/john-goods-final-report-for-wwgc-2019/

This contest naturally wanted to make tracking displays available
to interested spectators around the world. For this, they chose to use what are
known as GFA trackers – self-contained cell-based trackers supported by the
Gliding Federation of Australia, and well proven at many Australian contests.
With the exception of the occasional battery failure, these trackers and the
online software that displays their data do a beautiful job, and the tracking
for this contest has been popular around the world (most notably, in the USA).
Pilots naturally have some concern about carrying a tracker that continually
discloses their position, but this concern is addressed by the rule (noted
above) requiring a 15-minute delay on the display of such data. So far so good.

But at a special meeting of Team Captains on Friday morning, we were stunned to
learn that the Australian team found a way to receive undelayed data from all
GFA trackers. They thus had full real-time coverage of all gliders all the time,
and were freely using this data to help their pilots.

Along with almost everyone here, I do not believe this was a plan to
intentionally do something underhanded. The Australian team position is that
they found a web page that required no password or other access restrictions,
making the GFA tracking data available there fair game. They further believe
that what they were obtaining (real-time positions for all gliders) is the same
data available to any team that went to the trouble of deploying private Flarm
stations in the contest task area. They though of it as a clever and easy way to
obtain the same information others would be able to get.

It won’t surprise you to hear that the other 9 Team Captains (of which I am one)
did not endorse this view. The first point is that the contest is required by
rule to impose a 15-minute delay on the tracking display, so a website that
offered undelayed data ought to have been secured, something anyone with
knowledge of the rules would surely have known. Next, even if was not secured,
any scheme that uses such data undermines the 15-minute delay requirement, thus
creating a rules violation. Pilots accepted the GFA trackers (as the rules
required them to do) on good faith; they must now digest the fact that, in
effect, their gliders were “bugged” during this contest.

The initial ruling from the contest organizers was that the receipt of this
illicit data was unsporting behavior, but because the Australian pilots had been
told – and sincerely believed – this scheme was acceptable, no penalties would
be applied.