It's also the same name as one of their own CPU cores (the A6 CPU core was called Swift). And another programming language. And a spacecraft. And a bird.

and that OpenStack's Object Storage chose the name used by a great Jabber client (Swift: http://swift.im/)...

Yes, I find that unfortunate too.

But if you're interested in ACLs in OpenStack Swift, http://swift.openstack.org/overview_auth.html is a good place to start.

(all tongue in cheek)