"Curtis L. Olson" wrote:
> I think there is some gray area here. When you drive your car, you post
> your license plate # in plain and easy view both front and back. An
> airplane will also have it's registration number prominently displayed
> for all to see, and you need to transmit your identity and location in
> order for ATC to track you and maintain the safety of everyone in the
> airspace.
If you look at the details, then it comes very clear that there's a
significant distinction between 1.) posting ones license plate to the
public and 2.) automated aggregation of position data which further
leads to the ability to track one person's movements.
Once governments are able to track these movements there emerges a huge
risk that this data is being misinterpreted or misused. This is why
everyone should have a severe interest in not having the protection of
his very own privacy undermined by populist attempts - whose number
increase alarmingly (not only in the US but also in Europe). If done
right (TM), data protection should strictly forbid governmental/
intelligence access to ATC position recordings.
We have this nice "Toll Collect" system in Germany which determines the
usage of motorways by heavy trucks. This apparatus is (technically)
capable of recording every vehicle passing the respective cameras (if
the system really works).
Fortunately the appropriate law restricts analysis of the data to well
defined cases of criminal prosecution .... which doesn't prevent some
retarded politicians from pretending that we would live in a safer
world if police had general access to the data ....
Martin.
--
Unix _IS_ user friendly - it's just selective about who its friends are !
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