According to reports from CNN and other sources on the 6th (local time), Swift’s attorney sent a ‘cease and desist letter’ to Jack Sweeney (21), the operator of an X account (formerly on Twitter) tracking the flight paths of celebrities, including Swift, in December last year, warning that legal action would be taken if the tracking of private jets did not stop.
The cease and desist letter is a document that explains to a specific individual that they are engaging in illegal activity and warns them of legal action if they do not stop.
In the letter, Swift’s attorney stated, “This may be a game to you, but it’s a matter of life and death to our client,” and accused Sweeney of being involved in “stalking behavior” by continuously posting information about Swift’s current location and future movements.
The attorney also claimed that tracking private jets posed an “immediate threat” to Swift’s safety and well-being.
The attorney emphasized that shared location information could serve as a ‘roadmap’ for executing criminal plans if Swift were to face significant threats, such as armed intruders coming to her home.
Sweeney, a student at Central Florida University, has been operating the X account for several years, tracking the private jet usage of celebrities worldwide and measuring their carbon emissions.
He reportedly uses publicly available data from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and aircraft signals to track private jet routes.
Sweeney’s records include information on when and where planes take off and land, as well as travel times, but do not contain information about who is on the plane or where they go after disembarking.
In addition to Swift, Sweeney also operates accounts tracking the private jets of other personalities such as Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, and Bill Gates.
Previously, Elon Musk’s X account for tracking his private jet was created, but the Guardian reported that Musk deleted the account in December 2022.
Regarding the receipt of the cease and desist letter, Sweeney claimed he had no intention of causing harm to Swift and argued that tracking private jets falls within the realm of public information gathering.
He stated, “I believe in transparency and the importance of public information,” adding that someone, even if not himself, would eventually track Swift’s private jet routes.
A spokesperson for Swift did not respond to media inquiries regarding the matter.
Meanwhile, it was reported by Business Insider, a US economic publication, that Swift disposed of one of her two private jets last month.
Swift was previously named the top celebrity emitter of carbon emissions due to private jet usage as of 2022.
