Taylor Swift launches legal broadside at a college student who tracks private jets via public data
Taylor Swift launches legal broadside at a college student who tracks private jets via public data
When it comes to dealing with a Florida college student who uses public data and social media to track the private jets of billionaires, politicians and other celebrities, Taylor Swift apparently can’t just shake it off.
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.”
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.
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.
This is like trying to stop paparazzi... No legal grounds.
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?
Well, I had no opinion of her since I don't follow her entertainment. And I did not care about her. I thought sheust be not so bad to have such a following but now she publicly displayed she is as deranged and out of touch as the other billionaires out there. Thus I now have an opinion on her and it's not good.
Is this Jack Sweeney's tracker?
Which one is Taylor Swift's plane? Is it "Cosmic Girl?"
He has a much better site right here. It's awesome!!! https://globe.theairtraffic.com/
I'm literally here watching the planes on the map and listening to the noises as they pass by. What's wrong with this at all? It's like just tracking cars and the guy is doing nothing more than just relaying data.
Have we ever seen Musk and Swift in the same place at the same time?
Excuse my ignorance, but if her legal team decided to sue him into the ground, there's virtually nothing he could do about it, right? There's no recourse to protect "the little guy" from being legally bullied? Would his best bet be to find someone willing to work pro bono with potential to countersue for damages?
I wish people understand that if you have any public/online presence, pretty much you can get tracked, especially in this age where ordinary people can track someone from their fingertips (and devices), for example Elon's Jet which get tracked too using public data.
It feels like when someone use Facebook (or any big services), skipped EULA, and then complain that they're being tracked...
just my 2cent from average joe.
I'm telling you she's a proper cunt.
I didn't see it mentioned in the article so I'll just say it here:
Careful about assuming TW even knows about them. People with broad teams, and especially lawyers on hand, also sometimes find themselves with those teams acting on their own to the letter of their contract. You see it at times with legal teams of larger organizations. Not saying that's the case here, just wanted to remind everyone to not take things at face value nowadays as it's very easy to do.
I have a legitimate question: why is this public information? Like.... I'm not taking sides either way, I just don't understand the reason that the current location of someone's private property (her jet) is considered public info. They location of someone's car or boat isn't publicly available.... So why a plane?
I understand that flight controllers need access to this info for logistics, but that's not really public. They also need access to air waves for communication and those are heavily regulated.
That's it. Time for a new content filter.
Imma let you finish, but Tay-Tay has the most expensive legal team of all time!
I mean.. I kinda get her rational, she's got crazy stalkers... But all this really does is tell you what city she's in.
Great, she's in NYC... Which only has 9 million people in it.
Gotta love the phrasing, like Swift commands some man-of-war, in a big Victorian wig and dress - the elite fuck.
I'm so tired about hearing about this fake ass bish. Y'all know she's racist, right?
I guess she is the biggest monster of them all