That's not as far as it goes, either -- if the software required to set up and maintain a geolocation database is free and open source, then anybody who does not trust the central provider can set up a dedicated machine with any desired level of security and privacy measures taken.
There are some who would not think twice about letting their location be known to those that they list as friends -- users of Twitter and similar services come to mind immediately. At the same time - thanks to The Magic of Free Software - corporate users, journalists, and privacy-minded individuals can keep close tabs on what happens to their information. On that note, nothing stops servers running the same sort of geolocation databases from networking, either. If I host such a database on my own trusted machine in order to increase my privacy, I could still export choice data points (once per day, or upon special request, for instance) to a public database where anybody on my friends list can get at them. That way, I can carefully restrict the ability of any third party to amass information about me, while still selectively geonetworking with my friends. On 7/4/07, Nick Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On 7/4/07, Ryan Prior <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > You seem to imply that there is a technical infeasibility that cannot be > overcome. If the public point database were segregated by a UNIX-style > permissions system and connected to via SSH, wouldn't it be just about as > safe as any public file server or database? Files that are "shared" can be > accessed, files that are private stay private. A server-side daemon could > negotiate friends lists, proximity, and other details without ever exposing > private position data publicly. > > Am I missing something on the privacy front? Perhaps I just didn't grok your > example. SSL would be better suited - perhaps that's what you meant. The main issue, I think, is that it requires users to trust this third-party database with some very personal information - possibly up to and including an ongoing log of their location. Even if the site itself is trustworthy, if it were compromised it could easily be exposed. The obvious solution, of course, is to simply restrict your userbase to those that are happy with the tradeoff. -Nick Johnson
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