Last month Elon Musk complained on Twitter about his personal security being put at risk by people announcing his travel plans online.
The Tweet was in response to a 18 January announcement from Sawyer Merritt that he wouldn’t be posting any reported travel plans for Elon Musk anymore.
While Musk did not mention anyone specific, his biggest problem appears to be with a Twitter Bot called @ElonJet with tracks every flight of his 2015 Gulfstream G650ER business jet (callsign N628TS) using publicly available data.
As it turns out, Elon Musk allegedly approached the creator of the said Twitter account, a 19-year-old Jack Sweeney from Orlando, Florida, with an offer to cease these activities in exchange for $5,000.
“Can you take this down? It is a security risk.”
That was the first private Twitter message Sweeney claims Musk sent him in late November 2021, but another one stands out because it highlights the billionaire’s worries.
“I don’t love the idea of being shot by a nutcase.”
Sweeney was apparently unconvinced and said in interviews that he rejected the offer, demanding ten times more money.
“I’ve put in it so much work and time it’s something I enjoy doing and $5,000 doesn’t seem like a lot for how much I get out of it.”
After Sweeney told Musk he wanted at least $50,000 or maybe an internship to stop tracking his business jet, messages from the Tesla CEO stopped coming. Shortly after that, Sweeney realized Musk added some privacy blocks on his jet as a means to prevent it from being tracked. That did not faze him, though. “I still know how to track it.”
While he is technically not breaking any laws, it is a clear privacy invasion and poses potential danger to Musk’s security but from interviews it’s obvious that Sweeney doesn’t care and sees it as a game and stepping stone to fame.
Sources: MSN, Newser
Follow FiND iT on Facebook here.
ALSO READ: Monique Muller responds after Katlego Maboe is ‘absolved’ of misconduct
