Details of civilian flight traffic worldwide is public knowledge. This >includes information about the movements of privately-owned aircraft.
There are several websites that make the air traffic control data
freely available.
This guy Jack Sweeney has been using this information to create
social-media accounts that post up-to-date information on the flight >movements of celebrities like Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Taylor Swift
and others.
But two years ago, the account that tracked the flight movements of >self-proclaimed "free-speech absolutist" Elon Musk was suspended from >Twitter. And now, other similar accounts on Threads and Instagram have >suffered the same fate.
The excuse seems to be "privacy concerns". Taylor Swift even claimed
this was somehow "stalking and harassing behaviour". But remember,
none of this information is actually "private". ><https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/22/24276546/meta-threads-instagram-elonjet-celebrity-jet-tracking-suspended>
...[end quoted excerpts]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Sweeney
Jack Sweeney (born c.?2002) is an American programmer and entrepreneur.
In 2022, he became known for creating Twitter bots to track the private
jets of Russian oligarchs and other prominent individuals, including
Elon Musk through the ElonJet account, and Taylor Swift.
Life
Sweeney's father, a Technical Operations Controller for American Airlines, >introduced him to aviation when he was young. Sweeney would use flight- >tracking data to track his father coming home when he commuted from Dallas >back to Florida.[1]
In the beginning of 2022, Sweeney was a freshman at the University of
Central Florida,[2] and was studying information technology. He intends to >work in software engineering.[3] In February 2022, Sweeney stated in an >interview with Bloomberg Wealth that he was establishing a company called >"Ground Control" that monitors flight activity of prominent billionaires.
[4]
Creation of flight monitoring tools
As a teenager, Sweeney developed Twitter bots[5] to track and share the >locations of the private jets of several individuals including Elon Musk, >Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Donald Trump,[2] and Drake.[6]
His program uses public data sources including the Federal Aviation >Administration, OpenSky Network, and Automatic Dependent Surveillance- >Broadcast.[2][7] In June 2020, he created the "Elon Musk's Jet" Twitter >account, dedicated to tracking Musk's private jet by using bots that
scrape publicly available air traffic data.[8]
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sweeney began tweeting the >location of approximately 30 private jets belonging to Russian oligarchs. >[3][9] In a March 2022 interview with CBS MoneyWatch, Sweeney stated his >desire to see their planes seized.[3] Some oligarchs being tracked include >Vladimir Putin, Len Blavatnik, Roman Abramovich,[3] Alexander Abramov,[6] >Dmitry Rybolovlev, Arkady Rotenberg, Eugene Shvidler, Vladimir Potanin,
Vagit Alekperov, Oleg Deripaska, Mikhail Prokhorov, Alisher Usmanov,
Viktor Vekselberg, Leonid Mikhelson, Viktor Medvedchuk, Vladimir Lisin, >Suleyman Kerimov, Oleg Tinkov, Yuri Linnik, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Dmitry >Mazepin, and Alexei Mordashov.[10]
In April 2022, Sweeney stopped tracking Mark Cuban's travel in exchange
for his friendship and business advice.[11]
In May 2023, Sweeney began tracking the flights of Florida Governor Ron >DeSantis after DeSantis signed a bill into law redacting details of his
trips he made as Governor.[12]
| Sysop: | DaiTengu |
|---|---|
| Location: | Appleton, WI |
| Users: | 991 |
| Nodes: | 10 (0 / 10) |
| Uptime: | 144:10:57 |
| Calls: | 12,962 |
| Files: | 186,574 |
| Messages: | 3,266,454 |