Taylor Swift takes legal action against US college student tracking her private jet
- Florida college student Jack Sweeney said he has received a cease-and-desist notice from Taylor Swift’s lawyers
- Letter blames Sweeney, who uses data available in the public domain, for tipping off stalkers to pop star’s location
Taylor Swift has bad blood with a Florida student behind several social media accounts dedicated to tracking celebrity private jets and their flight emissions.
Jack Sweeney, a student at the University of Central Florida, received a cease-and-desist letter in December from the “Look What You Made Me Do” singer’s legal team alleging he “engaged in stalking and harassing behaviour” by publishing “real-time and precise information” about the singer’s whereabouts.
Sweeney published details about Swift’s flights – including jet model, takeoff and landing locations and carbon emissions per flight on his @taylorswiftjets social media pages.
“While this may be a game to you, or an avenue that you hope will earn you wealth or fame, it is a life-or-death-matter for our Client,” said the letter. “Ms Swift has dealt with stalkers and other individuals who wish her harm since she was a teenager.”
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Along with Swift, Sweeney has tracked the flight details of other celebrities – including makeup mogul Kylie Jenner and SpaceX chief Elon Musk – through his @CelebJets on X (formerly Twitter), which has been suspended.
Sweeney’s jet-tracking was already a headache for Swift in July of 2022, after a study by the Yard, citing @CelebJets, listed the Grammy winner as the No 1 celebrity “offender” when it comes to private jet carbon dioxide emissions.
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The 2022 report said Swift’s 170 flights on her private plane emitted approximately 9,142 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Her representative said at the time the singer wasn’t all to blame. Swift, who previously owned two personal planes, is reportedly now down to one.
The cease-and-desist-letter requested that Sweeney put his @taylorswiftjets to rest, alleging that his account provided people seeking to harm Swift a “road map to carry out their plans”.
Last month, a Seattle man was reportedly arrested and charged with harassment and stalking when he appeared at the 34-year-old pop diva’s home in New York City. The man, identified as David Crowe, had visited her home approximately 30 times since late November, CBS News reported.
“We cannot comment on any ongoing police investigation but can confirm the timing of stalkers suggests a connection,” a spokesperson for Swift said. “His posts tell you exactly when and where she would be.”
The cease-and-desist also cited several comments on social media that condemned Sweeney’s account but did not reveal who left the comments. Swift’s legal team also alleged that Sweeney, 21, was in violation of several state laws, but did not specify which.
Sweeney told The Washington Post, which broke news of the letter on Tuesday, that he saw the December notice from Swift’s team as an “attempt to scare him away from sharing public data”.
The Washington Post reported that Sweeney’s accounts draw from public data available from the Federal Aviation Administration and “volunteer hobbyists who can track the aircraft via the signals they broadcast.
“This information is already out there,” Sweeney said. “Her team thinks they can control the world.”
Sweeney’s legal representative, Florida lawyer James Slater, fired back at Swift’s lawyers, saying that his client’s account posed “no threat” to Swift and her safety, and “engaged in protected speech that does not violate any of Ms Swift’s legal rights,” according to The Washington Post.
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“This isn’t about putting a GPS tracker on someone and invading their privacy. It’s using public information to track the jet of a public figure,” Slater said. “This is their means to try to quash a PR issue and bully my client to have the bad coverage die down.”
The letter warned Sweeney that Swift would take legal action if he did not stop his @taylorswiftjets social media activity by December 26, 2023. “We will not hesitate to escalate this matter as needed,” the letter said.
Interest in Swift’s whereabouts has increased in recent months, amid her highly public romance with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
With Super Bowl LVIII just around the corner on February 11, Swifties and football fans alike wondered whether she could make it in time to support Kelce, 34, after a February 10 stop in Tokyo for her Eras Tour.
The Chiefs will face off against the San Francisco 49ers at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
Last week, the Japanese embassy in Washington, offered a response: “Despite the 12-hour flight and 17-hour time difference, the Embassy can confidently Speak Now to say that if she departs Tokyo in the evening after her concert, she should comfortably arrive in Las Vegas before the Super Bowl begins”.
