What could pop sensation Taylor Swift and maverick entrepreneur Elon Musk possibly share? Aside from their hefty bank accounts, it turns out, an intriguing approach to guarding their privacy. In the spotlight-ridden world of fame, privacy is a rare gem. Yet, some celebrities like Swift make notable strides to reclaim it, as seen in her recent legal action.
To understand the full context of Swift’s move, let’s take a look back at Elon Musk, right before he bought Twitter and renamed it X. Back in 2022, Musk, known for his unconventional tech innovations, to put it politely, made headlines with a unique legal action. His target? A series of social media accounts obsessively tracking the private jets of celebrities and billionaires.
Helmed by a Florida-based college student, Jack Sweeney, these accounts use publicly available data from the Federal Aviation Administration to report on the movements of billionaires, politicians, and other high profile figures’ private jets. He also shares estimates of the private flights’ planet-warming emissions. While the reports do not list who is on the flights, the posts have caused quite a stir online, opening up debates about the thin line between public interest and personal privacy.
In December 2022, Musk banned Sweeney’s ElonJet account on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Musk claimed that a stalker used the account to track down a car with his son in it, citing safety despite his self-proclaimed “free-speech absolutist.” Police ultimately were unable to connect the attack and the jet-tracking accounts, and Sweeney continued his accounts on other social media platforms.
Swift, arguably, knows much more about privacy invasions. Her past experiences with stalking and harassment underscore her commitment to guarding her privacy. However, her latest legal move has also highlighted another contentious issue — her frequent private jet travels. As noted by Katie Couric Media, Swift has received a lot of flak for her private jet usage in recent years, particularly since being named as the number one carbon emissions offender in a 2022 list of celebrities who excessively use their private jets.
Now, here’s where the two narratives intersect. Swift’s legal team has issued a cease and desist letter to the same college student running the jet-tracking social media accounts that Musk had previously targeted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Echoing Musk’s sentiments, Swift’s lawyers argue the tracking amounts to “stalking and harassing behavior.”
“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,” Kate Wright Morrone, one of Swift’s lawyers, wrote in the cease and desist, per Washington Post.
In the letter, Sweeney is painted as someone who trades others’ safety for fame or potential profit. The evidence? A 2021 message to Musk where he cheekily upped Musk’s $5,000 ‘delete-the-account’ offer to a cool $50,000, as initially spilled by the now-extinct tech blog, Protocol. According to Sweeney, though, no cash ever changed hands.
Morrone added that there is “no legitimate interest in or public need for this information, other than to stalk, harass, and exert dominion and control.”
Sweeney doesn’t see it this way and called Swift’s lawyer’s statements, “inherently wrong,” considering that she is one of the most famous living celebrities on the planet and due to said celebrity her whereabouts directly impact the residents of whatever city she is in. Environmental activists have previously criticized Swift for her frequent private jet usage, arguing that it contributes significantly to carbon emissions, and some view the tracker a tool to help hold Swift and other private jet-setters accountable for their colossal environmental impact.
“This isn’t about putting a GPS tracker on someone and invading their privacy. It’s using public information to track the jet of a public figure,” Sweeney’s lawyer said, per Washington Post. “This is their means to try to quash a PR issue and bully my client to have the bad coverage die down.”
He also notes that her fans are often just as guilty of tracking Swift down to her exact location.
“Her fans are the ones who have grown the TaylorSwiftJets accounts and subreddit,” Sweeney told Fortune in an email. “The tracking accounts routinely have more supporters and fans than otherwise.”
While the Swift jet tracker is down, Sweeney has also tracked (and is still tracking) hundreds of private jets, including those owned by Kim Kardashian, Jeff Bezos, and former President Donald Trump.
Before you go, click here to find out who fights to keep paparazzi away from their partners and kids
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