In late December, Swift’s camp hit Jack Sweeney, a junior studying information technology at the University of Central Florida, with a cease-and-desist letter that blamed his automated tracking of her private jet for tipping off stalkers as to her location. In the letter, attorneys from the law firm Venable accused Sweeney of effectively providing “individuals intent on harming her, or with nefarious or violent intentions, a roadmap to carry out their plans.”
Sweeney provided the link to that letter in an email to the Associated Press. In that message, he emphasized that while he has never intended to cause harm, he also believes strongly in the importance of transparency and public information.
“One should reasonably expect that their jet will be tracked, whether or not I’m the one doing it, as it is public information after all,” he wrote.
A spokesperson for Swift echoed the legal complaint, saying that “the timing of stalkers” suggests a connection to Sweeney’s flight-tracking sites. The spokesperson did not respond to questions seeking elaboration of that charge, such as whether stalkers have been seen waiting for Swift at the airport when her plane arrived or, alternatively, if there is evidence that stalkers have somehow inferred Swift’s subsequent location from the arrival time of her flight.
The legal letter likewise accuses Sweeney of “disregarding the personal safety of others”; “willful and repeated harassment of our client”; and “intentional, offensive, and outrageous conduct and consistent violations of our client’s privacy.”
Such statements are difficult to square with the fact that Sweeney’s automated tracking accounts merely repackage public data provided by the Federal Aviation Administration, a government agency. That fact did not dissuade the Venable attorneys, who demanded that Sweeney “immediately stop providing information about our client’s location to the public.”
Nobody should have a private jet anyway.
You can’t have a private train car unless you’re an oil baron with a name like Charles crassus Taft
Baboo?!
He remembers me!
It’s like meowschwitz in here
cant tell if thats a real person or a hunger games character
What about billionaires?
Oh, I know what you’re going to say… “There shouldn’t be billionaires either”. Well guess what! You’re right. Fuck em both.
Didn’t Elon try something similar and lost in court? In case anyone is interested silicon jets tracks billionaires jets.
Edit: I confused silicone and silicon.
silicone
It’s silicon. Silicon is a naturally occurring chemical element, whereas silicone is a synthetic substance.
Silicon is for computer chips, silicone is for boobies.
now I’m thinking about jet shaped boobies
Silicone is also really nice for cooking utensils!
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silicone jets
Minor spelling mistake, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find some in those jets.
Yeah… I mean at the end he got Twitter and I think he kick him out… that was an expensive way to handle it I guess…
I mean it probably is still tracked somewhere else and maybe there are other accounts doing it no idea.
I mean it probably is still tracked somewhere else and maybe there are other accounts doing it no idea
The comment you replied to provided exactly that link…
Oh ok I thought that was somebody else unrelated to that guy.
Still not sure why all the downvotes I just added info that he was kicked out of Twitter… Ugh .
Interesting how as soon as someone becomes a billionaire they become a dickhead, at least publicly.
Nah they were always dickheads… it becomes ok to show it when they hit that billion dollars mark though.
I live under Iraq and this comment made me look up whether she’s a billionaire. Guess that’s why she’s been in the news so much lately. Jesus. I wish the billionaire count was going down, not up.
You mean under a rock? /c/boneappletea
He could be Kuwaiti?
That’s a hilarious geopolitical joke and I’m so happy you exist to make it
I sea that my engagement hack had the desired affect
GGWP
In the short-term more billionaires might be better. The more there are the more there are to claw at eachother’s throats. Hopefully they all kill eachother in the process.
This doesn’t seem like a dickheaded move to me. First, it was a C&D letter, which has no legal status, and second, the stalker thing is a legitimate concern, especially since the MAGA camp is all riled up about her.
Did you make the same noise when musk did it?
Well here’s a wild idea, why not ride on a normal god damn plane like 90% of every other person who flies. Boom, can’t be traced by some kid then AND its better by a wide range for the environment. Nothing to see here but rich people problems lol
90%? More like 99.99% right?
You ever heard of the curse of being famous? Imagine everyone took a love potion and everyone knows your face. Everyone around you is staring at you and attempts to speak to you, touch you, they might even actually worship the ground you walk on. Not only those that love them are around, but those that want to do harm. Cut her hair and sell it, harm her to boast about it. Who knows?
That’s a fucking hell I’d not want to live. That is why they don’t fly normal. There’s a reason that high profile celebrities don’t fly with the rest. It’s not necessarily a status thing, but a safety thing. There’s a reason the president has secret service and a private jet.
She could ride in an anonymous tour bus, harder to track, she could even have a security convoy, and still save money and emissions. Billionaires are murdering us all, I have no sympathy for her or anyone with her wealth if they take private jets on trips that would take two hours to drive.
That. Is a fair argument.
The president of my very violent country flies economy on public flights. I think she could have a few bodyguards in first class with her and be fine.
The president of my very violent country flies on two 747s.
The tiny tetchy millionaire prime minister of my country uses a helicopter to get everywhere domestically.
I mean the average for my whole country is the same as the average for the most violent cities in the USA so I think I win.
Congratulations.
You ever heard of the curse of being famous?
🤢🤮
You don’t have to own a plane to charter a private flight. She could just take private planes and not have to deal with crowds of people. Then you wouldn’t be able to track her plane, because she would be taking different planes. This is how most famous people deal with the issue.
You right. Makes more sense that way imo
Sorry, but this isn’t a reasonable take. Someone like Taylor Swift cannot go into the public without it being a huge security risk. This isn’t a TS thing, this is a “being the most famous person ever right this moment” thing.
Okay but she’s actively choosing to be that famous. She spent 6 years with Joe living a quiet low key life, but she decided to do another breakout into more fame and this is the cost. Plus she could charter jets like other celebrities, or idk just not fly home every weekend from halfway across the world?
She could just rent a different jet each time. Would still pollute, wouldn’t stress out a college kid, would be more difficult for stalkers to track, wouldn’t have drawn as much attention.
And thousands of MAGA maniacs now thinking she is some villain. I bet she’s getting tons of death threats now. First AI porn, then conspiracy nutjobs on FOX news, then everybody is projecting the worlds failure to act on climate change on her (brilliant piece of fox news propaganda I must say now), and now this. It’s really not her week lol.
This is it exactly.
Another point goes to the Streisand Effect.
Considering the amount of MAGA creeps around, I’d reserve judgement on that. She must get 10 credible death threats a day.
She has a 24/7, well paid security team. Most of America is a single $1000 emergency away from homelessness and financial ruin.
Fuck Taylor Swift and fuck idol worship.
You talk tough when you don’t have lunatics threatening your life. But, then you can, can’t you.
What the actual fuck is wrong with you? Taylor Swift isn’t your friend. She isn’t creeping around forums making a list of users that defend her. Her success was purchased by her rich father, her music is written and produced by a team of professionals who use scientifically proven methods to make sure the music is palatable to make the most money… Goddamn. Who defends the ultra rich?
It’s called empathy my friend. You should try some.
You misspelled psychosis.
You misspelled not caring about anyone.
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Simp? Bwhahaha. Sorry I hit so close to the nerve.
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That’s a good one too. You have a nice day.
Sucks to be her then. She could just not fly around in her private jet so much if she’s so worried.
Everyone has a job to do. Her’s forces her to travel a lot. Yours may not.
She’s got enough $$ she doesn’t HAVE to do anything the rest of her life and still live extremely comfortably.
Her “job” doesn’t force her to do shit.
You don’t walk in her shoes. You don’t know what is or should be important to her. She may be wealthy, but maybe her personal value is something other than what you think it should be.
I don’t walk in her shoes. Yeah duh, if I did I wouldn’t be, because if I ever made 5 million I’d retire, buy a house, and live off interest comfortably the rest of my life. I don’t need any more than that (and technically don’t even need that, considering I don’t have it now and I’m not dead).
That’s you, not her. Like most successful people I suspect she has higher aspirations. Although I find her music a bit jingleistic, I suspect making it is important to her, perhaps even more than her bank account.
Maybe she should buy twitter and ban the guy, or is this the wrong billionaire I am thinking of?
I’s she also going to sue Ticketmaster and her own PR team for publicly releasing every city she’s going to in her tours?
I hereby sure myself for publishing information about my location in my Instagram posts. Continued posting clearly shows a blatant disregard of my safety and feelings.
Publicly available information from the FAA. Simple as.
Both of her planes are blocked at the vendor level, which means they don’t show up on the ASDI feed from the FAA. Her flights are tracked by volunteers at places like flightaware who have their own ADS-B transceivers in their homes
It sounds tough being a billionaire. She should give it all up.
I’m team Florida student.
The stalker argument is absolute bullshit. A stalker would most likely not use the flight path of Swift’s private jet as a means of stalking her; it would be too cumbersome. Additionally, this is not “willful and repeated harassment” of Swift since Mr. Sweeny, as stated in the title and the article, obtained the information from public data provided by FAA. The intent of Mr. Sweeny’s tracking project was not to expose Swift to nefarious individuals but to expose the environmental impact of her private jet. The rich and famous are public figures and, as such, are open to criticism from the public. This is merely a flex (and a futile one at that) by someone with the resources to silence critics.
Yeah and how many different ways would a stalker have to find a famous person. She goes to concerts and events all the time, the stalkers know where those places are.
Exactly!
This is like trying to stop paparazzi… No legal grounds.
I bet swift could fly first class and get through the airport without being identified. But the convenience of a private jet is just too sweet.
She’s concerned for her personal safety, but shouldn’t I also be concerned for the risks she brings to me from her excessive co2 production?
Very stupid of her to bring attention to this, because I didn’t even know she had a private jet, now more people are aware of Sweeney’s website.
She uses her private jets (plural) a lot. Like, hundreds of lifetimes of carbon emissions a lot. There’s more than one reason she doesn’t want people looking.
Shhh you are saying the quiet part out loud.
It’s not fucking her. It’s her team. She probably isn’t even aware of it.
If someone works for you and does things in your name, you are responsible for those things and they can be fairly attributed to you.
