Taylor Swift threatens to sue student who tracks her private jet

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68223602

by dustedcodes • 2 years ago

26 46 2 years ago

bbc.co.uk

asdefghyk• 2 years ago

RE "...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........"

In my opinion would have to be a exaggeration. Who knows where she goes after leaving the airport. .....

amanaplanacanal• 2 years ago

Isn't her concert schedule completely public? People do buy tickets for her shows.

dalore2• 2 years ago

Yes! by the same logic we should not be tracking her public concerts. The location and times of the concerts should be private information only available to her.

SlackingOff123• 2 years ago

"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 emissions were about 1,185 times more than the average person's total annual emissions."

Quite the coincidence.

Given this is public information that any potential stalker could easily find themselves, do you think the student is doing anything wrong or illegal?

Alifatisk2• 2 years ago

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

I haven’t fact checked this but if that’s true then I find that horrifying.

viraptor3• 2 years ago

I'm surprised it's so low. She's got two private jets and a job which requires multiple flights a month.

Also:

Before the tour kicked off in March of 2023, Taylor purchased more than double the carbon credits needed to offset all tour travel

https://www.businessinsider.com/taylor-swift-spent-160-hours...

Really, I'd be more worried about the total amount of emissions from all the cars/flights from people going to her gigs. That's got to dwarf her own total.

pvaldes2• 2 years ago

Easy Fix: Use part of the generous amount of taxes that Taylor Swift pays, to fight against climate change, remove pythons from Florida, or fund a panda refuge in Montana. We consider this acceptable for each big company since decades

All this people carefully registering the journey of some random famous and shaming them online, should better stop, think, and use their time in this planet more wisely. Scapegoating and witch hunts online that try to blame climate change on some famous target are extremely stupid.

Even worse, they waste our time gossiping chasing ghosts, instead to act. Even small steps would really make a difference but we still are distracted hoping for a magical fix-all solution appearing at the last minute to put us out of the pan; This is very unlikely to happen, no matter how much soup we'll trow to the Mona Lisa. Is time to accept it.

leetgirl83• 2 years ago

How about someone here show us how "public" this info is? Since it is so "easily accessible"?

Niksko• 2 years ago

A Google search got me the tail number. ADS-B data is easily accessible, there are APIs. Seems like some bigger sites like Flight Aware are already redacting info for her tail number, but it took me a few minutes to find another site that didn't seem to.

I think you can credibly make the argument that when these protocols were invented, the intent wasn't for the data to be this public or accessible, and that we could perhaps update the protocols to avoid something like this.

But from a technology point of view, saying that flight data is somehow private is like saying that if I set up an FM radio station and someone buys an FM radio and listens in they're somehow snooping on my radio station.

AlchemistCamp4• 2 years ago

It will be interesting to see how differently HN reacts to this story vs the ones just over a year ago about a student tracking (i.e., de-anonymizing) Elon Musk’s jet, and then asking him for money.

preommr2• 2 years ago

FWIW, it's actually the same guy doing the tracking (jack sweeney).

defrost• 2 years ago

Why wait?

Taylor Swift threatens legal action against student who tracks her jet

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/02/06/taylor-...)

64 points|exitb|20 hours ago|93 comments

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39274857

and

11 points|EA-3167|9 hours ago|12 comments

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39283800

AlchemistCamp4• 2 years ago

Because the story is still generating comments! :)

TapWaterBandit• 2 years ago

Lol yep, thought the same thing.

HN landed hard on the "sucks to be you" side of things with Musk, curious to see where this ends up.

maximus-decimus• 2 years ago

It was even the same guy from what I'm gathering.

preommr2• 2 years ago

Why not just delay updating data by a few days? It provides the same amount of value in tracking carbon emissions and eliminates the safety risk.

Like I fully support transparency, and the data is already public, but are we really going to pretend that if in the one out of a million chances something happens to her, and it comes to light that the perpatrator in some form used this app, that it wouldn't sour people's views? It just seems like an unnecessary trouble to go through.

viraptor3• 2 years ago

You know when she's going to fly based on the tour schedule and past flights anyway. What's a realistic scenario where you can do something bad to her while she's flying, but wouldn't be able to without knowing the precise time? (Keep in mind you can deploy your own ADB receiver to confirm the planes around your location in real time, regardless of the internet)

lifestyleguru• 2 years ago

"I want attention but not like this"

zajio1am• 2 years ago

There is reasonable argument that it is not much difference between tracking someone car and tracking someone private jet. But super-rich are outgroup so most people who would strongly oppose the first case would not care in the second case.

The fact that there is flight data system is not much relevant, it could be modified to anonymize data.

coldtea3• 2 years ago

Strange how Elon Musk is not some weird exception it was presented as when shut down an account and complained about the same exact thing...

lomase• 2 years ago

Whataboutism is so boring.

coldtea3• 2 years ago

Yes, double standards are so much more exciting and fun!

pylua• 2 years ago

She definitely is the darling right now. I wonder if going after this student would change the perception of her in people’s minds.

sschueller• 2 years ago

"But she needs it for work"

I don't think so. I highly doubt all her crew, backup dancers and singers all fly private jet. They either all together charter a larger plane or fly on regular airlines like the rest of us.

Fly first class, take a bus or stay home. Only because the schedule isn't as flexible as you like doesn't mean you can go destroy the planet more than the rest of us because it's convenient for you.

snickerbockers• 2 years ago

I feel like if we lived in a world which was actually just, we'd be able to enact "COVID protocol" on rich people by forcing them to find ways to do their jobs without flying everywhere. Nobody really "needs" live concerts anymore, and if they do then taytay can just project an image of herself from her basement onto a giant glass screen like she's Hatsune Miku.

_chu1• 2 years ago

Don't compare Miku to Taylor Swift ever again lol

Woeps• 2 years ago

sue a student... but they're not the only one using/showing this data ...

If they would really care they should lobby to make their (or all?) flight data private. (which I find understandable)

dalore2• 2 years ago

It's tracking her jet, not her. She is free to use something else, and even send the jet to places without her. If I recall she even has 2 jets.

ChrisArchitect• 2 years ago

[dupe]

More discussion:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39274857

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39283800

RecycledEle• 2 years ago

Given the number of people flying on private jets who demand legislation to take away my old pickup truck, I suggest we ban all civilian air travel until it meets 100% of the environmental and safety requirements my old pickup truck has had to meet in its lifetime.

Taylor Swift threatens to sue student who tracks her private jet

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