Shannon Mcguigan
Taylor Swift has threatened college junior Jack Sweeney with legal action for sharing her private jet’s movements and the amount of CO2 it produces on social media.
The global superstar’s lawyers sent Jack Sweeney, 21, a cease and desist letter insisting he stop tracking her flights and locations.
Sweeney has become renowned for tracking the flights of the rich and famous, including Elon Musk, Mark Cuban and various Russian oligarchs, such as Roman Abramovich and Alexander Abramov.
His social media accounts publish publicly available data and also predict the emissions their journeys produce.
Sweeney believes his tracking accounts are important to ‘transparency’ and public interest, adding: ‘I believe in transparency and public information.’
In a strongly worded letter, Swift’s attorneys accused the 21-year-old of ‘stalking and harassing behavior’.
But who is Jack Sweeney? MailOnline takes a look at the American programmer and entrepreneur.
Who is Jack Sweeney?
Jack Sweeney is a junior student at the University of Central Florida, who manages multiple accounts that monitor flight paths of aircrafts owned by various public figures, including celebrities, billionaires and politicians.
His accounts use publicly available data, and also share the estimates of their planet warming emissions.
He has tracked various big names including several Russian oligarchs such as Alexander Abramov, as well as various celebrities including, Mark Cuban, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and now Taylor Swift.
Sharing information from the ADS B Exchange on Twitter with the help of automated bots, Sweeney previously branched out onto Threads and Instagram – before several of his accounts were disabled – and even created his very own database for tracking flights.
As a result of his work, he landed himself in the Forbes 30 under 30 2024 list in Consumer Technology.
According to Forbes, the student’s work has aided journalists, hobbyists and researchers across social media track aircrafts, as well as calculating the environmental impact of private air travel.
The university student first landed himself in the headlines when billionaire, Elon Musk, offered him $5,000 to cease sharing his flight information online.
But when the flight tracking enthusiast asked for $50,000 the co-founder of Tesla never responded, Business Insider reports.
However, when Musk took over X at the tail end of 2022, Sweeney discovered that his accounts – such as @ZuccJet and @ElonJet – had been suspended.
The CTO of Space X stated that accounts tracking flights were a ‘physical safety violation’.
X even overhauled their private information policy, putting restrictions on sharing the live locations of individuals, therefore, Sweeney has started to wait 24 hours before posting to abide by the social media guidelines.
Despite his previous strife with some of the world’s most rich and powerful, the student told Business Insider in November 2023, that landing on the Forbes list was ‘one of many reasons’ why he was pleased that he didn’t back down to the billionaire.
He told the publication: ‘I’m thankful I got on the list. I think this event just adds to the reasons why I’m glad I didn’t take it down.
‘It’s allowed me to meet great people and continue to expand on what I love, jet-tracking.’
Now several of Sweeney’s tracking accounts have now been banned across social media platforms including, Instagram, X, and Facebook.
He has managed to keep several accounts running on sites such as Mastodon, Discord, and Telegram.
Sweeney also has a few individual tracking accounts on Instagram, according to USA Today.
Elon But Delayed has continues to publish Musk’s aircraft details to X, dodging the ‘doxxing’ rules by publishing Musk’s and Swift’s flight updates on a 24-hour delay.
Why is Taylor Swift threatening Jack Sweeney with legal action??
More recently, the University of Central Florida student is going head-to-head with one of the worlds biggest pop stars – Taylor Swift.
The Bad Blood singer’s lawyers have threatened legal action against Sweeney, accusing him of ‘stalking and harassing’ behavior, according to the Washington Post.
They said they would ‘have no choice but to pursue any and all legal remedies’ if Sweeney did not stop tracking her flights and the CO2 they produce.
According to them, Sweeney’s accounts had caused Swift and her family ‘direct and irreparable harm, as well as emotional and physical distress,’ as well as heightening her ‘constant state of fear for her personal safety’.
In a strongly worded cease and desist letter, which was shipped to Sweeney’s home, it claimed there was no ‘legitimate interest in or public need for this information, other than to stalk, harass, and exert dominion and control.’
The letter, authored by Katie Wright Morrone from Venable Law Firm, alleged Sweeney was treating the matter like ‘a game’.
Morrone continued: ‘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.’
This comes after a man was arrested outside of Swift’s townhouse in Manhattan, New York in January.
A spokesperson for Swift said they cannot comment on ongoing police investigations, but confirmed that the timing of the most recent arrest ‘suggests a connection’.
They said: ‘His posts tell you exactly when and where she would be.’
In a statement to DailyMail.com Sweeney said: ‘I think it’s important to note that nowhere do I intend for harm. I actually think Swift has some good songs.
‘I believe in transparency and public information.’
The student thinks that the cease and desist letter is a bid to try and frighten him and stop him from publishing public data.
He claims that he was ‘being more careful about what he was sharing about the All Too Well crooner.
The legal letter landed on the student’s doorstep in December, around the same time his social media accounts monitoring Swift’s flights on Instagram and Facebook were disabled.
He alleges that the threats of legal action have been made amid Swift receiving huge backlash over the environmental effects whilst on her Era’s Tour – which also saw the singer flying across the US to spend time with her Kansas Chief boyfriend, Travis Kelce.
According to figures monitored by Taylor Swift’s Jets on Instagram, the Midnights singer has produced 128 tones of CO2 emissions so far.
To offset the damage to the environment caused by her flights she would have to plant a whopping 2,282 – which would also have to grow for 10 years.
Sweeney stated: ‘This information is already out there, her team thinks they can control the world.’
According to the Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator, Swift’s CO2 flight emissions are equal to the electricity used in 26.9 houses for one year.
In 2022, she was also ranked the biggest celebrity polluter of the year.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings