Earlier this week, it was revealed 19-year old college student Jack Sweeney, was asked by Tesla CEO Elon Musk to take down his Twitter bot, which tracks the location of his private jet, through publicly available data.
Musk offered $5,000 to Sweeney, who shot back asking for $50,000 instead, detailing his story to Protocol.
Now, in Sweeney’s latest interview with Business Insider, he shares more info about his interaction with Musk.
The Tesla CEO later responded to the $50,000 counter offer to say, “doesn’t feel right to pay to shut this down,” and has not responded to Sweeney since. But Musk did apparently implement some technical advice from Sweeney, using a blocking system that makes it harder to track his jet, by changing the latter’s identifier.
Sweeney told Business Insider, “I just have to work around it,” and it appears he has already. On January 26, Sweeney’s bot said, “Elon got PIA blocking program but already found the aircraft.”
Took off from Hawthorne, Elon got PIA blocking program but already found the aircraft. pic.twitter.com/nOxNUxy5y5
— ElonJet (@ElonJet) January 26, 2022
Why did Sweeney go public with his story and interaction with Musk? He said it was because the Tesla CEO lost interest in a deal with him. “He went the opposite way of me, so why wouldn’t I go the opposite way of him?”, Sweeney told Insider. He also said $5,000 offered by Musk “is not enough” based on the work he’s put into the Twitter bot.
Musk said earlier this month tracking of his private jet had become a “security issue”, without going into details.
