Mr. Sweeney made a counter-offer to Mr. Musk, according to the screenshots from the exchange, saying he would leave the account if Mr. Musk raised the ante to $50,000. He said he would also accept a Tesla Model 3, an electric car that costs more than $38,000, adding that he was joking.
During the exchange, Mr. Sweeney asked how he met Mr. Musk could have followed. He explained that he had obtained the transponder data from the plane. When told that paying to close the Twitter account didn’t seem right, Mr. Sweeney another proposal: how about an internship?
The exchange, which lasted more than a month, fell silent after January 23.
Mr. Sweeney downplayed the privacy and security concerns associated with his tracking account for Mr. Musk, which has more than 305,000 followers.
“It’s a private jet, so it goes straight from the plane to the car,” he said, adding that he has long been fascinated with aircraft tracking. “I don’t think it’s that much of a problem. Some people are just interested to see where he goes.”
Mr Sweeney said he obtained the data for his aircraft tracking accounts from the ADS-B Exchange, which describes itself on its website as the world’s largest source of unfiltered flight data.
Dan Streufert, the founder of ADSBexchange.com LLC, said in an email Wednesday that anyone with basic electronics can get the signals from planes broadcasting their locations. The information is also available by listening to air traffic controllers, he added.
“However, it is important to note that our website tracks aircraft, not individuals,” said Mr Streufert. “We cannot say who is or is not on the plane. Mr. Musk’s companies own and operate many aircraft – this is just one of them. Mr. Musk may find Mr. Sweeney’s activities annoying, similar to paparazzi, but this information is already publicly available from numerous sources.”