By 
January 31, 2022
Elon Musk discusses tech topics on panel with Todd Howard at E3 2019 Expo
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Elon Musk did not like the fact that his jet was being tracked, and its locations shared via Twitter. So he asked the tracker, a Florida teen to stop the same, offering $5,000 as compensation.

However, the teen refused the offer, countering with a demand of his own. Here’s how it all went down…

Elon Musk Is Nervous Over Flight Tracking

Elon Musk

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19-year-olf Jack Sweeney, from Florida, runs tracking accounts on Twitter, and one of them is @ElonJet. This and the 14 more flight tracking accounts that Sweeney runs, including those for Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos track movements of the private jets of the rich and famous all over the world. The accounts are run by bots that parse data and tweet it out, every time a plane lands or takes off.

By far, @ElonJet is the most popular account and as reported by Protocol back on the 26th of January, had 83,000 followers.

So last fall, Musk reached out to Sweeney, with a DM that said, “Can you take this down? It is a security risk.”

Sweeney responded with a quick money-minded offer, writing, “Yes I can but it’ll cost you a Model 3 only joking unless?”

Sweeney Wants Compensation From Elon Musk

Elon Musk during 'Elon Musk Answers Your Questions!' at SXSW

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The Twitter handle @Elonjet now has over 200K followers to Musk’s DM, which said, “I don’t love the idea of being shot by a nutcase” makes even more sense now. In the consequent DMs, Musk asked Sweeney how much he made from the Twitter handle every month and Sweeney honestly told him it was about $20 or so.

Musk offered Sweeney $5,000 to delete the account. This, according to Musk, would help him keep “crazy people” from tracking his location.

But Sweeney wanted Musk to add another zero to the number, writing, “Any chance to up that to $50k? It would be a great support in college and would possibly allow me to get a car maybe even a Model 3.”

Musk replied that he’d think about it but since then, Sweeney seems to gave been ghosted by the billionaire, which is perfectly okay by Sweeney.

According to CNN, the last message exchange happened on Wednesday, January 19, where he said that Musk did not feel it was right “to pay to shut this down.” Sweeney was happy to counter offer, writing, “Options other than remuneration like an internship would make taking it down a lot easier.”

$5,000 Is Not ‘Enough’ For Sweeney

As reported by CNN, Sweeney is not happy about the $5,000 offer, calling it, “not enough for how much I get out of it. It doesn’t replace anything, like the enjoyment factor.”
But the 19-year-old was generous enough to offer Musk some tech advice, telling him about a blocking program, which Musk did appear to use. But Sweeney is still able to track Musk’s flights, saying he can continue tracking, even if  “it’s just a bit more complicated.”
Musk has not upped his offer yet but Sweeney has benefited from his tracking accounts in different ways. He has gained a social media following, become great at coding, and even has a part-time job at UberJets as an application developer. Plus, he’s a Musk fan and thrilled that his tracking accounts got him a direct conversation with the man.
The ball is now in Musk’s court because we still know where his plane is at.