Swift threatens to sue student who tracks her jet

Taylor Swift's lawyers have threatened to sue a student who tracks the private jets of celebrities, including the singer, and shares it online.

Jack Sweeney, using publicly available data, tracks the take offs and landings of planes belonging to the wealthy and posts them one day later.

The tracking data amounts to "stalking and harassing", Swift's lawyers claim.

In 2022, he was banned from Twitter after Elon Musk accused him of sharing his "assassination coordinates".

The pop star'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, reported this week in the Washington Post and CNN.

In a statement to BBC News, Mr Sweeney said "nowhere do I intent 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 emission, 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.

Last month, a 33-year-old man was arrested on stalking charges outside Swift's home.

A spokeswoman for Swift told US media that the posts about her jet was partly to blame.

"We cannot comment on any ongoing police investigation but can confirm the timing of stalkers suggests a connection," said spokeswoman Tree Paine.

"His posts tell you exactly when and where she would be."

Swift's travel plans have also drawn increased attention from fans in recent months due to her highly publicised concert tour.

On Sunday, she is due to fly to Las Vegas to see her boyfriend play in the NFL Super Bowl, one day after her concert in Tokyo.

The news of her trans-Pacific journey led the Japanese embassy in the US to release a statement saying it is confident that despite the 12-hour flight and 17-hour time difference, she "should comfortably arrive in Las Vegas" in time to catch the game.

In his statement, Mr Sweeney pointed to the embassy's statement as the proof of the public interest in his work.

"When the Embassy of japan in the USA makes a statement saying that they are confident Swift can make it on a flight from Tokyo to the Super Bowl.... you should have a decent expectation that your jet will be tracked whether or not I do it.

"As after all it is public information."

Mr Sweeney's post do not provide any information about who is traveling on the planes, or where the travellers go once they land. But it triggered a free-speech debate in late 2022 when Twitter banned him for sharing what Elon Musk, said were his "assassination coordinates."

Twitter's Help Center later posted an updated media policy that said: "You may not publish or post other people's private information without their express authorization and permission."

Mr Sweeney has also tracked the private flights of other wealthy Americans, including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg.

Many of those accounts - including one tracking aircraft associated with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and another monitoring celebrity jets - appeared to be suspended on Twitter.