SAN FRANCISCO: Taylor Swift apparently can’t shake off her anger easily 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. It seems so.
In late December, Swift’s campaign sent a suspension letter to Jack Sweeney, a third-year information technology student at the University of Central Florida, alleging automated tracking on his private jet alerted a stalker to her whereabouts. Ta.
Lawyers from the law firm Venable said in the letter that Sweeney had provided “a road map to carry out his plans to those who intended to harm her and who had malicious and violent intentions.” accused of offering the above.
Sweeney provided a link to the letter in an email to The Associated Press. In that message, he emphasized that while he meant no harm, he also strongly believes in transparency and public information.
“After all, it is public information, so I should have a reasonable expectation that their jets will be tracked, whether I am tracking them or not,” he wrote.
A Swift spokesperson reiterated the legal complaint, saying the “timing of the stalker” suggested a connection to Sweeney’s flight-tracking site.
The spokesperson added that there is no evidence that the stalker was seen waiting for Swift at the airport when her plane arrived, or that the stalker somehow inferred Swift’s subsequent whereabouts based on the time of her arrival. He did not respond to questions asking for details of the charges, including whether there was any. A look at her flight.
The legal letter similarly accuses Sweeney of “disregard for the personal safety of others,” “intentional and repeated harassment of our client,” and “deliberate, offensive, and outrageous conduct and consistent violation of client privacy.” ‘.
Such statements are difficult to reconcile with the fact that Sweeney’s automated tracking account simply repackages public data provided by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a U.S. government agency.
Despite this fact, Venable’s attorneys were undeterred and demanded that Sweeney “immediately cease releasing any information regarding his client’s location to the public.”
A spokeswoman for Mr. Swift did not respond to questions about whether his lawyers had filed a similar request with the FAA.
Sweeney at one time had more than 30 such accounts on Twitter, now known as X after Elon Musk acquired the site for $44 billion in 2022.
Musk later got into a spat with Sweeney, saying he believed not banning Sweeney’s @elonjet account was a “direct personal safety risk” to protect free speech. Regardless, he tweeted at some point.
But it didn’t take long for Musk to suddenly change his tune and effectively expel the student from X for endangering Sweeney’s safety.
