2024-02-11 15:57:45
Image copyrightCourtesy of Jack Sweeney
Caption,
College student Jack Sweeney has become a headache for celebrities and wealthy people.
Article information
- Author, Mike Wendling
- Role, BBC News
-
2 hours
A university student from Florida (United States) has become accustomed to exposing some of the richest and most powerful people in the world. As? Telling us where their private planes are and how much carbon they emit.
Jack Sweeney would like to clarify some details. On the one hand, he thinks Taylor Swift has good songs.
However, despite the threat of legal action, he believes anyone should be able to see where the singer’s private plane is going and how often she flies.
“I like to be fair. I try to share everyone’s information, no matter who it is,” he told the BBC in an email.
Precisely the information about the location of the private planes of the rich and powerful, published on their social media accounts, has turned the 21-year-old into the news and has earned him legal threats.
image copyrightCourtesy Jack Sweeney
Caption,
The flights of virtually every aircraft in the world can be tracked on the TheAirTraffic website.
About the watchman
Sweeney is the son of an airline maintenance operations controller and a teacher, and grew up in the suburbs of Orlando (central Florida).
The young man assured that he has always had an interest in aviation and technology, and particularly in the companies SpaceX and Tesla, both owned by Elon Musk.
Those interests gradually led him to develop an aircraft tracking website (TheAirTraffic.com) and social media accounts that track the aircraft of Russian celebrities, politicians, tycoons and oligarchs.
The system is based on publicly available data, which is collected by amateurs.
During their flights, planes periodically send information about their location, and these signals can be picked up by people using inexpensive receivers on the ground.
This thriving cohort of online aircraft trackers is part of the larger Osint (open source intelligence) community, populated by people who dig into reams of data that is freely available online in search of incriminating, insightful, or just plain interesting information.
It’s a motley crew that includes a variety of people, from curious people to researchers and investigative journalists.
“At first I did it as a hobby because I found it interesting,” said Sweeney, who is currently in the third year of an information technology degree at the University of Central Florida.
However, with the passage of time it has found a more defined purpose. “The defense of transparency and public information,” he added.
And there’s an environmental angle: “Travelers are trying to hide the bad public relations caused by their emissions.” [de carbono]”.
image copyrightGetty Images
Caption,
The use that singer Taylor Swift makes of her private plane has made her a target of criticism from environmentalists.
and the right to privacy
The data collected by Sweeney has been used in studies that show the enormous carbon footprint left by Swift and its environment. The singer has claimed that she has purchased enough carbon credits to double offset the emissions from her last tour.
But privacy issues are also at play. Swift, through her attorneys, has maintained that revealing the location of her private plane puts her at risk of harassment.
In a letter first revealed by the Washington Post, the singer’s lawyers said that tracking the plane was a “matter of life and death” and that “there was no legitimate interest or public need for this information, other than stalking, harass, and exercise dominance and control.”
Sweeney rejected those claims and said there is a fundamental public interest in locating the pop star’s plane. Your evidence? The “Swifties” themselves.
“Their fans, who have grown the TaylorSwiftJets accounts and subreddit, are the ones who are really interested,” he explained.
“These following accounts consistently have more followers and supporters (than detractors),” he added.
image copyrightGetty Images
Caption,
In recent years, various environmental organizations have launched campaigns against the use of private planes and have even called for their ban.
And given her world tours and numerous public appearances, including her recent attendance at high-profile NFL games, it’s usually pretty easy to determine where Swift will be at some point in the future.
Over the past fortnight, for example, numerous stories have been published describing how he has traveled between two urgent commitments: his Saturday night show in Tokyo, Japan, and Sunday’s Super Bowl in Las Vegas, USA. ).
Much of this public information is more granular than the location of a plane. Flight data can show who owns a plane and where it is in the sky, but not who is on board it or where those people go after the plane lands.
However, Swift’s representatives say the data from the plane gives exact times and locations of her movements and note that an alleged stalker was recently arrested outside her New York home.
“Her posts tell you exactly when and where she will be,” the singer’s publicist, Tree Paine, said in a statement.
image copyrightGetty Images
Caption,
Since Elon Musk bought Twitter, the student has had to modify his way of reporting to continue doing so through this network.
No crime in sight
Sweeney gave the star some advice, suggesting she register her private jet through an anonymous corporate entity and perhaps choose an identification code that does not include her date of birth or initials, to protect her privacy.
James Slater, the student’s attorney, said he does not expect Swift to take further legal action.
“The letter was an attempt to intimidate Jack into doing something he legally doesn’t have to do,” he said.
“Unfortunately, people with power and money do this often (but he) is not doing anything illegal,” he concluded.
Swift’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.
One question is whether the Swift fandom will follow Sweeney’s accounts after the latest news.
After the lawyers’ letter against the young man came to light, there was an avalanche of reactions online. The messages included messages in support of Sweeney, but also against him.
“Jack Sweeney wants Taylor Swift to die like Princess Diana. I’m not going to let this go. I’m very angry,” declared a follower of the singer.
image copyrightGetty Images
Caption,
Sweeney denies that he wants to put the safety of celebrities at risk, but rather the contradictions they incur in their speeches in favor of the environment.
Making memory
But this isn’t the first time Sweeney has come under pressure from the rich and famous.
When Elon Musk bought Twitter (now
However, within weeks, Musk changed course, banned the account and threatened to sue, alleging that @elonjet caused a stalker to track him and climb on top of his ship while his young son was inside.
Police later identified a member of Musk’s security team as the suspect and concluded that the data posted by Sweeney had nothing to do with the incident.
Sweeney now runs an account that tracks Musk’s plane with a 24-hour delay, to comply with a site rule that prohibits real-time location tracking.
He also manages accounts on several social networks that track planes owned by Kim Kardashian, Jeff Bezos (president of Amazon), Bill Gates (founder of Microsoft), Mark Zuckerberg (president of Facebook), (former US president) Donald Trump et al.
But he expressed frustration at the vagaries of social media, noting that Meta has suspended the Facebook and Instagram accounts that track Swift’s plane, but has left several others that track planes, including those that monitor Zuckerberg’s plane.
The BBC has contacted Meta for comment.
Meanwhile, plane spotters who chat with Sweeney on the Discord site have defended his stance, along with their enthusiasm for his hobby. And some admitted that they are Swift fans too.
“I have no doubt some crazy people have sent her crazy threats, but an airport is not a place where she’s vulnerable,” one commenter said.
With information from Gareth Evans
And remember that you can receive our notifications. Download the new version of the app and activate them so you don’t miss our best content.
1707674973
#young #man #faces #legal #threats #tracking #celebrities #private #flights