Teen Turns Down US$5,000 To Stop Tracking Elon Musk’s Jet; Asks for More
Jack Sweeney, a 19-year-old student, has been tracking Elon Musk’s private jet and publishing it on a Twitter account @ElonJet.
What started as something that was just for fun could potentially make Sweeney (right) a very rich kid.
Sweeney, who is studying IT at the University of Central Florida and a self-professed fan of the automotive/tech mogul wrote a code that pulls Musk’s flight data, which is required by the federal aviation regulators and is available on public websites, and auto-tweets the whereabouts of the “Elon Jet”.
At the time of writing, the site has over 358,000 followers:
This is the second flight like this now, looks like they’re working on something or trying to mess with us. pic.twitter.com/KOVotTbDUN
— Elon Musk’s Jet (@ElonJet) February 1, 2022
Sweeney has already turned down an offer of US$5,000 from Musk, who DM-ed the student to shut the account down. Sweeney counteroffered with a proposed payment of US$50,000 or a Tesla Model 3 or an internship. The exchange apparently didn’t reach an agreement.
Technically, Sweeney is not breaking the law but there arise questions of privacy and safety for the jet-setting billionaire. Musk had tried to appeal to Sweeney by telling him he “didn’t love the idea of being shot by a nutcase” but Sweeney argues that he wasn’t aware of any threat originating from the account’s followers and that Musk goes “from jet to car” and he’s seen Musk visit restaurants in LA where there are more people than at airports.
While all planes are required by the FAA to transmit location data to prevent collisions and also locate missing aircraft, but neither they nor ADS-B Exchange, which publishes the data and is where Sweeney obtains it, think the issue of privacy is their concern.
So, unthwarted, Sweeney has gone on to create more accounts that track the flights of other rich and famous people, namely Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Cuban and Drake, as well as SpaceX’s jets. Eventually, Sweeney will track someone who will be willing to pay the US$50,000 or more.
Unethical or brilliant? Or maybe a bit of both?
