this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2024

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611

Taylor Swift launches legal broadside at a college student who tracks private jets via public data (www.seattletimes.com)

submitted 2 years ago by GlitzyArmrest@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

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In late December, Swift’s camp hit Jack Sweeney, a junior studying information technology at the University of Central Florida, with a cease-and-desist letter that blamed his automated tracking of her private jet for tipping off stalkers as to her location. In the letter, attorneys from the law firm Venable accused Sweeney of effectively providing “individuals intent on harming her, or with nefarious or violent intentions, a roadmap to carry out their plans.”

Sweeney provided the link to that letter in an email to the Associated Press. In that message, he emphasized that while he has never intended to cause harm, he also believes strongly in the importance of transparency and public information.

“One should reasonably expect that their jet will be tracked, whether or not I’m the one doing it, as it is public information after all,” he wrote.

A spokesperson for Swift echoed the legal complaint, saying that “the timing of stalkers” suggests a connection to Sweeney’s flight-tracking sites. The spokesperson did not respond to questions seeking elaboration of that charge, such as whether stalkers have been seen waiting for Swift at the airport when her plane arrived or, alternatively, if there is evidence that stalkers have somehow inferred Swift’s subsequent location from the arrival time of her flight.

The legal letter likewise accuses Sweeney of “disregarding the personal safety of others”; “willful and repeated harassment of our client”; and “intentional, offensive, and outrageous conduct and consistent violations of our client’s privacy.”

Such statements are difficult to square with the fact that Sweeney’s automated tracking accounts merely repackage public data provided by the Federal Aviation Administration, a government agency. That fact did not dissuade the Venable attorneys, who demanded that Sweeney “immediately stop providing information about our client’s location to the public.”

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[–] Taako_Tuesday@lemmy.ca 23 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Seems like an excuse to stop people from drawing attention to her jet use. Easy solution would be to share the flight records only after she's left each location

[–] wahming@monyet.cc 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Or, say, they should only share it once the information is already public. You know, the information that the FAA is already sharing?

[–] Poem_for_your_sprog@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

You can pick up transponder signals yourself with a receiver.

[–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 years ago

That would completely ruin the purpose of tracking airplanes.

You need up-to-date info to prevent mid air crashes.

[–] Moose@moose.best 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The problem is more to do with ADSB I think. If I remember correctly, all aircraft in the US must have an ADSB transponder now. That info is broadcast for traffic awareness but also contains a ton of other info like speed, altitude, and most importantly the tail number. That signal can be picked up by anyone within range using very simple radio equipment, sites like ADSB Exhange do this and populate a map. So right now unless they want to rework the entire ADSB system, as long as you know the tail number, you can track anyone's aircraft live. Delaying this data would make the traffic avoidance impossible.

[–] nixcamic@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Well not just adsb but I think all filed flight plans are public also?