Taylor Swift asks UCF student Jack Sweeney to stop tracking her jet. Now he's responded

Taylor Swift is telling a UCF student she doesn't belong with him. Or at least not with his airplane-tracking social media account that keeps tabs on her whereabouts.

The student is pushing back.

“This information is already out there,” the 21-year-old student told the Washington Post. “Her team thinks they can control the world.”

In December, attorneys for the pop music superstar threatened legal action against Jack Sweeney, a junior at the University of Central Florida, who has managed social media accounts tracking the movements of celebrities, politicians and billionaires for years. Last year then-Twitter CEO Elon Musk fought back against his own publicly available travel information — which he called "assassination coordinates" — getting posted on his own service and first tried to buy @ElonJet from Sweeney and then, after Sweeney refused, shut down the account and threatened legal action.

Sweeney made another account, called @ElonJetNextDay, which displays results delayed at least 24 hours. Since then has also added Russian oligarchs, more celebrities, and Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Why is Swift, arguably one of the world's biggest stars, asking him to stop?

Who is Jack Sweeney?

Sweeney is a junior studying computer science at UCF with a lifelong interest in aviation. While he was still a teenager he created software called bots to track and share the location of several prominent billionaires such as Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Mark Cuban, Donald Trump, Bill Gates and the rapper Drake, along with departing and arriving cities, cost of fuel used and amount of CO2 emissions created. The information from his accounts has been used to shame celebrities and other famous people for their "disproportionately high" impact on climate change.

After Russia invaded Ukraine he created @RUOligarchJets to track the movements of about 30 Russian oligarchs, although he admitted info from Russia was sketchy. That X (formerly Twitter) account, along with his others, was suspended in December 2022 for violating site rules.

Now using Instagram, Facebook, Mastodon and Bluesky accounts, Sweeney currently tracks Musk and DeSantis, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, and an assortment of celebrities including Tom Cruise, A-Rod, Kenny Chesney, Dan Bilzerian, Blake Shelton and John Travolta. An account tracking former president Donald Trump runs on Trump's own social media, Truth Social, although it does not update regularly.

Who is UCF student Jack Sweeney? Taylor Swift asks jet tracker of the rich and famous to stop posting her info

Why is Taylor Swift suing jet tracker Jack Sweeney?

No lawsuits have been filed. In December Swift's attorney sent Sweeney a cease-and-desist letter, according to the Washington Post, threatening "legal remedies" if he didn't stop "stalking and harassing" her and causing her and her family and heightened her "constant state of fear for her personal safety."

“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,” attorney Katie Wright Morrone wrote in a letter shared with the Post.

Swift, 34, who on Sunday became the artist with the most "album of the year" Grammys ever on the same night she announced her new album, has been the target of multiple stalkers over the years, including one who was arrested three times in five days last month outside the artist's New York City home.

A Texas man was sentenced to 30 months in prison in 2020 after he pleaded guilty to stalking and sending her threats. A Florida man who served six months in 2018 for breaking into her Manhattan townhouse and falling asleep in her bed was arrested again the next year for smashing a glass door to get back inside.

Swift opened up about her stalkers in an essay for Elle in 2019 where she talked about websites posting all her home addresses and the first aid equipment she keeps on her at all times.

"You get enough stalkers trying to break into your house and you kind of start prepping for bad things," she said. "Every day I try to remind myself of the good in the world, the love I’ve witnessed and the faith I have in humanity. We have to live bravely in order to truly feel alive, and that means not being ruled by our greatest fears."

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Swift's spokesperson did not present evidence that any stalkers had used Sweeney's information, the Washington Post said, but said the timing of the stalkers suggested a connection.

Swift's legions of fans may use it more than stalkers do, as they comb over everything remotely Swift-related to find clues about the singer-songwriter's upcoming albums, special promotions and other events. Most recently Swifties have feverishly been going over flight details to try and work out if she'll be able to make it from a concert in Tokyo to the Super Bowl to watch partner and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

Sweeney told the Post that the information was public data and offered only a suggestion as to which cities she might be in, similar to a concert (or NFL) schedule. He also mentioned she had been under fire at that time for her flights' excessive CO2 emissions in an analysis that labeled her "the biggest celebrity CO2e polluter of this year." (The spokesperson said that Swift wasn't responsible as she often loaned her jet out to other people, and she bought more than double the carbon credits needed for her latest tour to offset her own travel).

Sweeny's X account @SwiftJetNextDay currently tracks her jets with a 24-hour delay, although he also maintains accounts on Reddit, Bluesky and other social media.

How did Sweeney respond to Taylor Swift?

On Monday, Feb. 21, Sweeney came out swinging with an X post titled "Look What You Made Me Do," name-dropping the title track from Swift's 2017 "Reputation" album and adding the letter his own attorney sent back to the pop star's legal team in response.

"Put simply, there is nothing unlawful about GRNDCTRL's use of publicly accessible information to track private jets, including those by public figures like Taylor Swift," wrote Sweeney's attorney, James Slater.

Sweeney also shared the two letters sent to him by Swift's team.

Does jet tracker Jack Sweeney track Ron DeSantis' flights?

After the Florida governor signed bills to keep his travel records private and exempted from the state's Sunshine laws, Sweeney added a DeSantis tracker. He told Insider he expected interest in DeSantis to rise when the governor declared his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

The @DeSantisJet account has a 24-hour delay but other social media versions do not.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Taylor Swift asks jet tracker Jack Sweeney to stop posting her info