Taylor Swift launches legal broadside at a college student who tracks private jets via public data
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.”
"Waaahhhh people are tracking me in my private jet" she is 100% being a dick. Fly in a regular ass plane like normal people do and problem solved
That, uh, makes no sense. Regular ass planes are public. The point here is to remain private, not be even more public.
Yes, "public"
With a mouth mask on in business class, nobody would recognise her.
Lol problem definitely not solved, that's making her even more public.
People would swarm her. She would probably cause a bunch of delays. She's literally too famous to justify flying commercial.
Edit: she's definitely complaining about someone simply relaying public information, but she can't sit down at a football game without people parking themselves outside the door to the suite she's in. There's no way she could just chill in the back of C group with the rest of us.
When did I say she's better than us or deserves special treatment?
She's an insanely famous public figure. It's the people who go crazy over her that are the problem. If given the choice between getting trampled by 100 people or taking a private plane, literally all of us would pick the same choice.
The part where you implied she is allowed privacy while the rest of us don't.
We're all entitled to privacy. Idk about you, but I can go about my life in relative anonymity, so even if I'm in public, no one pays attention. She can't do that.
Exactly. Her flight data should be public, definitely, but goddamn do I not want to be on a commercial flight with her. Flying is painful enough without all the craziness that would cause. I don't even want to be in the same airport at the same time.