Taylor Swift launches legal broadside at a college student who tracks private jets via public data

SAN FRANCISCO: 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 emphasised 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 (FAA), a US 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”.

A spokesperson for Swift did not reply to a question inquiring whether the attorneys had issued the same demand to the FAA.

At one point Sweeney had more than 30 such accounts on Twitter, now known as X after Elon Musk purchased the site for US$44 billion in 2022.

Musk subsequently had his own dustup with Sweeney, tweeting at one point that his commitment to free speech required him not to ban Sweeney's @elonjet account, even though he considered it “a direct personal safety risk”.

But it was not long before Musk abruptly about-faced and effectively banned the student from X, accusing Sweeney of endangering his personal safety.

SWIFT SET TO ATTEND SUPER BOWL

Swift's plane touched down in Los Angeles on Saturday (Feb 10) after the pop megastar wrapped up her show in Tokyo, putting her in position to attend Sunday's Super Bowl in Las Vegas, multiple news outlets reported.

She is expected to be on hand to cheer on her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. The defending champion Chiefs take on the San Francisco 49ers in the 58th edition of the National Football League's (NFL) title game at Allegiant Stadium.

Swift finished the Japan leg of her "The Eras Tour" with a sold-out concert in Tokyo and, thanks to favorable time zone changes, appears to have made it back to the US in plenty of time for the game.

It was unclear whether she would continue on to Las Vegas on Saturday or stay the night in Los Angeles, where she has a home, and make the one-hour flight into Las Vegas on Sunday morning.

The "Anti-Hero" singer will not be in the US for long. She is scheduled to head to Australia for seven sold-out concerts, starting in Melbourne on Feb 16.

Swift has attended 12 Chiefs games since she began dating Kelce last year, boosting the already sky-high NFL ratings.

Last weekend, she won the Grammy award for album of the year for an unprecedented fourth time, and Kelce has said he wants to hold up his end of the bargain and bring home some hardware of his own.