Taylor Swift threatens legal action against student who tracks her jet

[mahatmakanejeeves]

I guess it's now my turn to say something about Taylor Swift. Please don't ask me to name any of her albums or ask me which song of hers is my favorite.

In case you've forgotten, I regularly post about the whereabouts of Air Force 1 or Trump's plane, N757AF. The information is widely available. All you have to do is look for it.

Taylor Swift threatens legal action against student who tracks her jet

The superstar’s effort to keep the tracker accounts from posting her plane’s takeoffs and landings recalls Elon Musk’s banning of a similar account.

By Drew Harwell
February 6, 2024 at 8:00 a.m. EST

Taylor Swift’s attorneys have threatened legal action against a Florida college student who runs social media accounts tracking the flights of her and other celebrities’ private jets.

Jack Sweeney, a junior at the University of Central Florida, has for years run accounts that log the takeoffs and landings of planes and helicopters owned by hundreds of billionaires, politicians, Russian oligarchs and other public figures, along with estimates of their planet-warming emissions. The accounts use publicly available data from the Federal Aviation Administration and volunteer hobbyists who can track the aircraft via the signals they broadcast.

Sweeney’s accounts fueled a free-speech debate in late 2022 when X, formerly Twitter, banned Sweeney for sharing what the platform’s owner, Elon Musk, said were his “assassination coordinates.” The accounts don’t say who travels on the aircraft or where they go once the planes land. ... In December, Swift’s attorney at the Washington law firm Venable wrote Sweeney a cease-and-desist letter saying Swift would “have no choice but to pursue any and all legal remedies” if he did not stop his “stalking and harassing behavior.”

{snip}

Sweeney, 21, told The Post he saw the letter as an attempt to scare him away from sharing public data. The accounts offer only an incomplete sketch of which cities Swift might currently be in, similar to the public schedules for her concerts or any NFL games she might attend, he said. And the letters, he added, were sent to him at a time when she faced criticism over her flights’ environmental impact. ... This information is already out there,” he said. “Her team thinks they can control the world.”

{snip}

By Drew Harwell
Drew Harwell is a reporter for The Washington Post covering artificial intelligence and the algorithms changing our lives. He was a member of an international reporting team that won a George Polk Award in 2021.

[hlthe2b]

1. I cannot blame her for being upset, given the RW attempts to demonize her & threaten her...

But, I'm not so sure she can stop this via a lawsuit. It will be interesting.

[Initech]

21. Isn't this the same guy who was tracking Elon's jet for a while?

I agree it is dangerous, but I feel like this could enter uncharted territory if it goes to SCOTUS.

[hlthe2b]

24. Yes.

[DemocratInPa]

2. I like TS, but..

She is coming off entitled here.. The guy runs a website that tracks planes, and such, he has done it for years, he has tracked a lot of athletes, coaches, politicians, and celebrities.

[MotownPgh]

4. Stalkers

As someone who has been stalked, it's hard to explain the anxiety. I'm glad she has so much security, sad that she has to. He may have a right to track planes, but there isn't much doubt it helps stalkers obsessed with her whereabouts. And now the new threats from the political nutcases. I hope she remains safe and protected.

[DemocratInPa]

40. How is he stalking her?

He runs a site that tracks planes.. He has tracked a lot of celebrties flights.

Believe it or not, there are a lot of people who are into aeronautics out there.

[edisdead]

44. He has the right to do it

But yeah it makes it easier for stalkers to ya know... Stalk?

[DemocratInPa]

70. Sorry, I still don't see where he is stalking her..

Flights are public information..

He is allowed to track flights, millions do this.

[ProfessorGAC]

73. I Think The Poster's Point....

...he is facilitating stalking, not stalking himself.
At least that's how I read it.

[edisdead]

76. Maybe you should read MY post again.

[EX500rider]

52. I assume her concert schedule is the best way to track where she is going to be

[mahatmakanejeeves]

64. This was a bit harder to do with the Winter Dance Party in 1959. Now, not so tough.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Music_Died



And good afternoon.

[Raven123]

5. I don't see this as entitled. She just objects where others do not

Don’t know if she has a legitimate legal complaint, however

[Rebl2]

20. I think

others have complained about this guy tracking their planes too. Don’t think it should be allowed. Comes off like stalking a person.

[Raven123]

26. I sure would not like it if I were the person being watched

I agree it sounds like stalking

[DemocratInPa]

42. So flightware should be shut down then?

Its An amazing tool when you have loved ones flying across country..

I don't see this guy as a stalker, just someone who is way into aeronautics.

If he is stalking TS, there are a lot of people out there stalking, even some on here stalking the DT family when we post where he is heading and stuff.

[brooklynite]

57. How is it "stalking" if the information is publicly available?

I'll also observe that her concert calendar is also publicly available.

[Demsrule86]

6. I completely disagree.

Her life is threatened...hardly entitled the MAGA's are dangerous. Have you listened or read any of the deranged shit printed about her? Some MAGA moron just cut off his own Father's head because the poor guy was a federal employee. No offense but I find this attitude somewhat distressing. Her life is in danger from Trump's minions on a daily basis.

[brooklynite]

58. Where has there been a threat? All I've seen are conspiracy theories and rants.

[Demsrule86]

9. So you 'like' her'?

[yardwork]

18. Celebrities are stalked, and sometimes murdered.

I can see why she's concerned, especially now.

[xmas74]

23. She's had issues with a stalker in the past

Who threatened to strap a bomb on himself if she turned him down. He sent messages to her father about being her soul mate and made 10 hour marriage proposal videos that he posted on YouTube. He made a video at a shooting range where he threatened her,her family and her dancers if she said no.

I don't think it's entitled as much as it's fear of what happened before will happen again.

[Torchlight]

27. I like planes, but..

Rebecca Schaeffer probably came off as entitled too.

[NorseSaxonCelt]

32. He is an unhinged stalker..

Dangerous and invading privacy.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

45. I post about Trump's and Biden's trips by aircraft all the time at DU.

The comings and goings of aircraft are public information. Everyone has access to that information.

You can listen to transmissions between aircraft and control towers all you want in this country.

Welcome to DU, and good afternoon.

[Chuuku Davis]

3. Her lawyers will drown him in

Legal fees.

[MichMan]

15. Yes, even if he is acting legally, just crush him with legal fees

People need to learn not to mess with the 1%

[TheProle]

43. We've got billionaires to protect!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

46. EFF will take up his cause.

https://www.eff.org/

[DemocratInPa]

72. I just don't see this getting far to "drown" him in legal fees..

This is going to thrown out pretty fast IMO..

He is following public information. If he gets a decent lawyer, all they have to do is print out TS online tour schedule that her and her team produces to the public.

I totally understand her safety concern, but isn't this one of things about being a celebrity?

[Silent3]

75. Even if I can sympathize with TS here, the "drown him in legal fees" approach is a big flaw in our legal system

It's a way for the powerful to bully people who don't have deep pockets. It's how Trump stiffed so many contractors.

Just because Taylor Swift is a much nicer person with a much more sympathetic cause, that doesn't make legalized bullying right.

[Mz Pip]

7. Just because you can do something

doesn’t mean you should.

I don’t know it what this guy is doing is legal or not but it seems to be a rather creepy use of his time.

It could be considered stochastic terrorism.

[stopdiggin]

10. the ostensible reason given

(and I'm a long ways for necessarily being convinced) is that this is about exposure of 'carbon footprint' - with a particular emphasis on celebrities, athletes, pols, etc.

I'd offer up another one. I think a lot of this falls into the category of, "I do it, because I can!"

Other hand - dissemination of public records, pretty clearly a legal endeavor - GPS tracking of individual vehicles? - slightly more debatable?

[stumpysbear]

8. She is welcome to fly commercial. Public data is public data

[NorseSaxonCelt]

34. She is travelling with her band, backing singers

Family and her team..that would take up a lot of seats.

[EX500rider]

11. I'm trying to remember if anyone agreed with Elon Musk when he had the same objection

[mahatmakanejeeves]

13. Oh, you know I can find those threads.

https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Ademocraticunderground.com&q=elon+musk+jet+tracking

Sat May 20, 2023: The college student who tracks Elon Musk's private jet on Twitter is now monitoring the jet used by (Ron DeSantis)

Wed Mar 2, 2022: The Teenager Who Tracks Elon Musk's Plane Has a New Obsession: Monitoring Russian Oligarchs

Thu Dec 15, 2022: Elon Musk posts license plate, calls on 120 million followers to track down man after banning

Wed Dec 14, 2022: 'Full-on hypocrite': Jet-tracking teen lashes out at Musk for suspending Twitter account (+ NEW acct

and others

[TheProle]

17. Illuminating, no?

[yardwork]

19. I don't think that Elon Musk is as vulnerable to being murdered.

Musk is rarely seen in public. A female singer whose job is to be out in public most of the time is vulnerable.

I can see her point about this.

[Alpeduez21]

31. Pretty sure I can know when/where her public appearances are without

Knowing anything about her private jet. I can just go to her website where she voluntarily puts that information

[Zeitghost]

47. Last I checked

She makes sure her tour schedule (i.e. her public appearances) is well known. Nobody needs a flight tracker to know when and where she will appearing in public.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

22. Yep.

She should have quietly bought him off.

Musk offered in $5,000. He wanted a Tesla.

Streisand effect is now in play.

[Drum]

12. Wasn't Elon Musk trying something similar?

And there, may I say firmly, is the limit of comparison between the two. I’m with Taylor in most other regards.

Go Chiefs!

[Coventina]

14. I seem to remember reading that Taylor Swift uses her private jet A LOT

And that climate activists have been begging her to set a better example.

I can't say they are wrong.

You don't have a right to privacy while driving. I feel flying a private jet does NOT entitle one to privacy at all!!

[maxsolomon]

16. I saw a Reel on FB of Winnie the Pooh washing dishes

captioned "Me washing out old yogurt pots for the Recycling Bin while Taylor Swift takes three-minute private flights..."

She's not alone, of course. Each private jet flight is an absurd per capita carbon footprint.

[NorseSaxonCelt]

37. She is on a World Tour this year.

She is in Japan tomorrow and Australia on the 21st...

[maxsolomon]

48. Well aware.

It's difficult not to be.

[xmas74]

25. I wonder how much of hers isnt fear that stalkers

Will follow along with the information.
She had one a year ago who made marriage proposals in YouTube, called her dad, said if he couldn't marry her he'd strap a bomb to himself and blow everything up and sent a video at a shooting range where he threatened to kill her,her family and her backup dancers.

After that the thought of someone watching you and releasing that info on social media would be scary.

[Coventina]

33. Every woman who has been stalked and / or harassed (which is almost every woman)

can certainly sympathize with Taylor Swift's feelings, however, I don't feel she qualifies for a special exemption that other women aren't entitled to get.
She's probably way safer than the average stalking victim.

[SarahD]

28. Why it will not work to sue.

The answer is right there in the post. The aircraft is tracked; the person is not.

[getagrip_already]

29. The tracking will end up counterproductive anyway...

She will just end up putting three identical jets in the air all the time. You will never know which one, if any, she is on.

They will take off at the same time and go in different directions. They will go to game cities even if she doesn't.

She will flood the zone with data. And the skies with co2. All because someone wants to report her planes location.

[Coventina]

35. Reporting on how the ultra-rich are ultra-polluters is definitely in the public interest.

Swift shouldn't get an exemption just because we believe her to be on our team.

[getagrip_already]

38. But in this case we are driving bad behavior....

You can criticize someone who has to travel as part of their job, but she does have to constantly travel, and commercial travel isn't always flexible.

If security concerns forces her to put up decoy planes, that's unfortunate, but I understand it.

[Coventina]

41. Do you seriously think these loser incels have a ghost of a chance of bringing down her plane?

She's astronomically more likely to be attacked while on the ground.

[getagrip_already]

60. Its not her plane in the air, its what city she is in

Which is why she doesn't want her plane tracked.

Sometimes it's obvious. She has a concert. The superbowl.

Other times, not so much. Business meetings, recording sessions, personal travel.

She may just want some anonymity. Haters gonna hate, but no reason to help them.

I'd do the same thing. But luckily for the world, I'm nor a rich and famous billionaire with magats after me.

[Coventina]

62. Just knowing what city she is in is not that big a deal.

Also, IIRC, she frequently loans her plane to others, so just because the plane is going somewhere doesn't mean she's on it.

I really think these fears for her safety are vastly overblown.

[getagrip_already]

66. Its not our call - we havent been stalked

Or threatened or harassed like only magats will.

And she was being stalked even before the magats turned on her. Just Google it.

She has reason to be paranoid.

I don't, and I doubt you do either. Imagine a thousand dominating exes all trying to violate a restraining order and get to you. That's kind of the situation magats put her in.

[Coventina]

67. If she's truly in THAT MUCH DANGER, then a hobbyist tracking her jet is the least of her concerns.

She's spending her energy in the wrong direction.

[EX500rider]

55. "If security concerns forces her to put up decoy planes,"

What danger is her plane in exactly?
Stalkers with SAM missiles or what?
On the ground I assume she has bodyguards.
It's easy to know where she is going and when, she has a tour date schedule.

[Alpeduez21]

30. There is quite the business opportunity here for the right company

Start a fleet of jets that a certain class of people can use. All that is tracked is that a jet owned by FLY.inc has taken off and landed. No one really know who is on the jet

[mahatmakanejeeves]

36. One such firm is NetJet. It's owned by Warren Buffett.

Trump flies NetJet from smaller airports where his 757 N757AF can't operate.

And good afternoon.

[Zeitghost]

50. There are many options in that market already

Charter flights are available to just about anywhere you're willing to pay to go in as luxurious a plane as you can afford.

[TheProle]

39. Super Bowl travel alone...

If Swift attends the Super Bowl, she will be traveling from Tokyo, where she is on tour. That will mean more than 19,400 miles (30,500 kilometers) by private jet in just under two weeks. Just how much carbon dioxide will that be?

While exact carbon emissions depend on many factors, such as flight paths and number of passengers, a rough estimate is possible, said Gregory Keoleian, co-director of the Center for Sustainable Systems at the University of Michigan. Traveling 19,400 miles on a Dassault Falcon 900LX, one of Swift’s jets, could release more than 200,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, he said.

That would be about 14 times as much as the average American household emits in a year, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

https://apnews.com/article/taylor-swift-climate-jet-carbon-emissions-kelce-chiefs-02ac425d24281bd26d73bfdf4590bc82

You read that right. She will pollute the atmosphere in that one trip 14x as much as you will throughout the entirety of 2024.

[maxsolomon]

51. Hence the point of the dude's tracking and blogging.

Meanwhile I'm collecting plastic caps under 3" in diameter in used yogurt tubs to reduce microplastic pollution. Makes it feel pointless.

[MichMan]

53. Just to watch a damn football game in person

[egduj]

49. Is this the same college student this board was applauding after she made her asinine carbon footprint statement?

[TheProle]

54. Yes

Yes it is

[SYFROYH]

56. When you want people interested in you, sometimes they are.

Jack Sweeney, the tracker, hasnt done anything threatening, but I can see why Taylor might be worried about others.

[Sympthsical]

59. As if TMZ doesn't know where she is at all times

I think people are defending her because they like her right now.

Which is a little illustrative of why things never really change. We say we care about the environment, but a little bit of pressure against a literal billionaire who spews carbon flippantly just to see her boyfriend's sports games, and the excuses come rushing out.

Remember, kids. You're lowering your thermostat, getting mess on your hands to deal with compost, and asking yourself if you can put off that extra trip to the store while celebrities obliterate the daily efforts of you and millions of others with nary a thought.

But, if we like them, well, they have to fuck the environment. For reasons. Special permission for a . . . *checks* singer. She's a singer. She does what Phyllis managers with karaoke at the company party. Just, you know, put that one in perspective.

[Conjuay]

61. Doesn't this guy have

School work to do?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

63. Several people are known to have the ability to walk and chew gum at the same time.

And good afternoon.

[LearnedHand]

65. Love Ms Swift but Jesus such a first world problem

THAT she owns a private jet using airport infrastructure paid for with taxes, following FAA mandates that most planes be traceable so they, I dunno, can help ATC prevent planet crashes? And she is miffed bc people use public data to track MANY (not just hers) famous places? Comes off a little bratty and titled doesn't it?

[Polybius]

68. There was a case like that against Eon Musk

I believe lost, but when he bought Twitter, he just banned him.

[Ms. Toad]

69. .

The same violin I imagined in my head when Musk complained about the same thing.

It is legal and public information. Any of us could do the same. To the extent it is a threat, the solution is legislative or regulatory - not suing someone who is not doing anything illegal.

[Zeitghost]

74. This is the answer

No matter how one feels about the publishing of flight information, it is legally obtained public information.

If someone would like to change that, it needs to go through the legislative or regulatory process. Suing someone who is aggregating and publishing public information is the kind of abuse of the legal system that needs to end.

[retread]

71. If you have the jet's tail number there are numerous web sites that will track the jet. Some are free. Isn't

this public data?