Celebrity jets: Florida college student tracks planes owned by Elon Musk, Taylor Swift, Trump, DeSantis

Jack Sweeney, the University of Central Florida computer science student who made headlines for tracking Elon Musk's jet via Twitter bots, has a star-studded list of ... famous jets. Or jets owned by famous people.

His most recent account tracks Gov. Ron DeSantis. A check on Wednesday, May 24, showed @DeSantisJet has close to 20,000 followers (and following 13, for those wondering). With only six tweets since the account made its debut on Twitter on May 19, that's pretty impressive.

Florida's governor, however, is doing what he can to block that information from being made public. Because Sweeney uses publicly available data from ADS-B Exchange, a flight tracking platform, it gets a little sticky.

What we know: Florida college student who tracked Elon Musk's jet on Twitter is now tracking Ron DeSantis

Jack Sweeney, the USA TODAY interview. Twitter suspended account tracking Elon Musk's jet. We asked the account's creator about the ban

What other celebrities have jet tracker accounts on social media by Jack Sweeney? Here's a list along with details on how some celebrities have avoided being tracked by them, who doesn't seem to mind and what doxxing means.

Elon Musk jet tracker on Twitter

Elon Musk, likely the most famous − jet − on this list, @ElonJetNextDay replaced Sweeney's original jet-tracking Twitter bot, @ElonJet. Sweeney was briefly banned from Twitter after the SpaceX CEO bought the company and the original bot was kicked off the social media platform for doxxing (see below). Sweeney and Musk reached an agreement, and the 2.0 bot made its debut in December 2022. It has more than 25,000 followers, and its bio states it's Musk's jet information delayed by 24 hours.

Donald Trump jet tracker on Instagram

Security, Secret Service, privacy are high on the list for a former president of the United States. There is an Instagram account that track's Donald Trump's private jet, when it's parked at Palm Beach International Airport near his private club Mar-a-Lago, or when it's en route to whatever destination. This account, programmed by Sweeney, posts photos of the flight path. It comes in handy for Trump supporters because when Trump travels to and from Mar-a-Lago, it's usually a big to-do, with lots of fanfare and supporters lining Southern Boulevard in Palm Beach County to get a glimpse of the former president in his limo on his way to the airport.

Embedded content: https://www.instagram.com/45thjets/

Taylor Swift jet tracker on Instagram

Pop singer Taylor Swift, currently on tour for her "Eras Tour" concerts across the country, has a Jack Sweeney jet tracker account on Instagram with more than 3,300 followers.

Embedded content: https://www.instagram.com/taylorswiftjets/

Which celebrities had jet tracker accounts on social media?

According to a December 2022 article in Business Insider, these celebrities had a jet tracker account programmed by Sweeney. The article details how some of the celebrities avoided the trackers. Note, some of the accounts have been suspended on Twitter.

Mark Cuban: There's a reason Cuban is on "Shark Tank." The Business Insider article states Cuban offered Sweeney business advice "for life" if he removed the jet tracker bot (@CubanJet) from Twitter. Sweeney complied.

Mark Zuckerberg: @ZuccJet tracked the Facebook CEO's private jet before it was suspended from Twitter.

Robert Pera: The owner and chairman of the Memphis Grizzlies and founder/CEO of Ubiquiti has a jet-tracking account on Twitter programmed by Sweeney. The bio on @RJPJet states the flight info from Pera's private jet is posted a day later to comply with Twitter standards.

The Business Insider article reported these celebrities and their jets were tracked via @CelebrityJets on Twitter. Though the account has more than 11,000 followers, it shows zero tweets.

• Mark Wahlberg, actor best known for "Transformers: Age of Extinction," "The Fighter" and "Ted"

• Floyd Mayweather, boxing legend

• Blake Shelton, country music superstar and popular judge on "The Voice" (along with his wife, rocker Gwen Stefani)

• Kylie Jenner, model and "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" star

• Kim Kardashian, reality TV star, pop culture icon

• Drake, R&B singer

• Steven Spielberg, Academy Award-winning director, best known for the "Indiana Jones" movies, "Ready Player One," "Jurassic Park" films (the originals and the reboots with actor Chris Pratt)

• Tim Cook, CEO of Apple

How can celebrities avoid being tracked by jet tracker accounts on social media?

Because the flight info is publicly available data from ADS-B Exchange, a flight tracker system, the celebrity jets' flight paths are open to the public − if there's a jet tracker account keeping track of it. This means celebrities have to be crafty to keep people from knowing where they are. They could rent their private jet out and use someone else's. They could travel by car or luxury trailer. They could travel by boat or a fancy yacht. So while their jet may be in use, it doesn't mean the celebrity is on board.

@DeSantisJet explains this in a Twitter thread. A May 22 tweet reads: "Just a reminder that currently this, account automatically (w/delay) tracks N943FL the Florida State Governor plane which is used for State related matters. Flights of the aircraft do not guarantee that DeSantis is onboard."

Another tweet by the Florida governor's jet tracker account states: "As others have noted DeSantis also gets rides on political donors planes for personal matters. If we become aware of these flights, it will also be shared here."

What is doxxing?

Elon Musk's use of the term "doxxing" went viral and had people searching online for its definition. The SpaceX and Tesla CEO originally referred to this term with the jet tracker bots. He also accused reporters of sharing information about his location, which he described as “basically assassination coordinates,” according to a USA TODAY story in December.

“Same doxxing rules apply to ‘journalists’ as to everyone else," Musk tweeted in December, when he banned several journalists from Twitter. He later shared, “Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not.”

“Doxxing” is a term that typically means sharing someone’s identity, address or other personal information online.

Contributing: Marina Pitofsky, USA TODAY; Samantha Neely, USA TODAY Network-Florida

Sangalang is a lead digital producer for USA TODAY Network-Florida. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram at @byjensangalang. Support local journalism. Consider subscribing to a Florida newspaper.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: How Taylor Swift, Tim Cook, Mark Cuban avoid Twitter jet tracker, doxxing