Taylor Swift is making headlines again, but not for her relationship with NFL tight end Travis Kelce. Instead, the buzz is about her dealings with University of Central Florida student Jack Sweeney.
Sweeney, 21, is a junior information and technology major at UCF who’s been takeoffs and landings of the private jets and helicopters of Taylor Swift, Elon Musk, Kim Kardashian, Mark Zuckerberg, and other celebrities, and making the information available on his website, along with calculations of their carbon emissions and fuel usage. This information is all publicly documented and gathered from the Federal Aviation Administration. Musk banned Sweeney from X. Bernard Arnault, the world’s richest man, has sent him two cease-and-desist letters.
Swift’s Venable attorney, Katie Wright Morrone, sent Sweeney a cease-and-desist letter detailing how Swift would “have no choice but to pursue any and all legal remedies” if he didn’t stop engaging in “stalking and harassing behavior.” Considering the pop star has routinely faced stalkers before and had to result in pressing stalking and harassment charges against such offenders, raising concerns about whether this could increase the number of happenings.
Sweeney maintains that he’s done nothing wrong. In an extended interview with Her Campus at UCF, Sweeney explains why he started tracking private jets, how easy it is for anyone to access flight data, why he doesn’t think he’s violating privacy rights, and how the project wasn’t about environmental activism— at least not at first. Sweeney started tracking planes not to highlight carbon emissions or to support environmentalism, but his interest in the availability of data and, according to Sweeney, “the fact that it reveals what is going on, either if it’s a celebrity or a business person, it reveals what events they’re going to or what business deals are going on.”
Sweeney also believes people of influence should be transparent in their movement. “These people want it hidden, and I think it’s good that it’s out there.” This type of data is everywhere and can be accessed by anyone. Planes in the sky regularly broadcast their locations via transponders that allow air traffic controllers and pilots to visualize their path. Many will also utilize ADS-B to track plane signals and report flight movements on independent sites, like the ADS-B Exchange. Although individuals can request the Federal Aviation Administration doesn’t send their flight data to consumer sites like FlightAware, this is not the case for independent sites. The Federal Aviation Administration defines ADS-B as “an advanced surveillance technology that combines an aircraft’s position source, aircraft avionics, and ground infrastructure to create an accurate surveillance interface between aircraft and ATC [Air Traffic Control].”
Sweeney has taken this public information and placed it into a database. On his website grndcntrl.net, a map, with colorfully animated planes, shows every aircraft in the skies in real-time.
Despite his original intention not surrounding environmentalism, Sweeney conceded that he had started an environmental discussion. Especially with the evidence of Taylor Swift’s incredibly short flights. In a recent Instagram poll to gather student input, one student said, “She [Taylor Swift] can afford not to take a private jet for errands almost every day while the rest of us struggle to live more environmentally conscious lives.” to express their dismay at Swift’s public flight data.
Besides environmental concerns, internet debates have focused on the privacy and security of public figures, especially Taylor Swift, due to the information Sweeney’s site is sharing. Many individuals feel she has no other travel options besides private jets due to her level of fame. “I think, realistically, her using commercial planes is impossible because of the level of fame she has,” one student wrote on Instagram. Privacy and security have continuously been a huge problem for anyone with a reputable name, especially with the actions of crazed fans and paparazzi. But Sweeney maintains what makes his case a little different is he uses public data to post information. According to Sweeney, “These figures are already in the public, I’m not telling people to go follow this person or anything. I try to stay on the factual side and do it in a respectful way.”
Student reactions on social media ranged from, “I think Sweeney is in the right, flight records are public data and should remain such” to “Bro ain’t do s**t.” Whether students are Swifties or not, there was a collective agreement among students who responded to the Her Campus Instagram poll that Sweeney’s use of public data did not warrant a cease-and-desist letter from Swift’s team. “Sweeney’s a journalist who collected publicly available information, he’s in the right,” one student posted.
Sweeney also said he does not think he is risking their safety because of stringent security measures at airports, especially those that serve private clients. “It would be really hard to attack someone at an airport like that,” he said.
Despite all the mixed emotions surrounding private jet tracking, there is no motivation for Sweeney to stop, he’s continued through online hate and regulating his normal life. Sweeney won’t stop anytime soon and hasn’t let this controversy distract from the important things in life. “You have to take breaks and enjoy life too. I couldn’t imagine if I had to manually post all this and I’m so glad I automated it. It’s a lot, especially with all the media [presence]. The way the media portrays it, they try to make it seem like, oh, there’s going to be this legal battle. But everyone in aviation and open source information knows that it’s just a threat trying to intimidate me,” says Sweeney.
It remains to be seen how this situation will unfold as many wonder whether Swift’s team has any genuine grounds to keep Sweeney from continuing his actions considering his fundamental First Amendment rights and the lack of threat to Swift’s safety at this time as a direct result.