Taylor Swift threatens to sue student who tracks her private jet

A student who tracks the private jets of celebrities says Taylor Swift’s lawyers have threatened to sue him for sharing her flight information online.

Jack Sweeney uses publicly available data to track the take-offs and landings of planes belonging to the wealthy and posts them one day later.

The tracking amounts to “stalking”, Swift’s lawyers claim.

In 2022, Twitter banned Mr Sweeney after Elon Musk accused him of sharing his “assassination coordinates”.

Swift’s lawyers have issued a cease-and-desist letter to Mr Sweeney, a 21-year-old student at the University of Central Florida, demanding that he stop sharing the location of her private jet.

The letter, issued in December, says that the information poses “an imminent threat to the safety and wellbeing” of Swift, calling it a “life-or-death matter” for her.

It cites numerous stalkers she has dealt with in her career, and says the data gives criminals “a roadmap to carry out their plans”.

The BBC has not independently reviewed the letter, whose contents have been reported by US media.

In a statement to the BBC, Mr Sweeney said “nowhere do I intend for harm”.

“I actually think Swift has some good songs. I believe in transparency and public information, ” he said.

He added that he received the threatening letter after media outlets began scrutinising Swift’s carbon footprint.

In 2022, Swift topped the list of celebrities with the highest private jet CO2 emissions, according to digital marketing firm Yard.

The organisation found that her jet emission were about 1,185 times more than the average person’s total annual emissions.