Re: Location services and age limit Re: Location in the news

On 8/3/10 11:03 AM, Ian Fette (イアンフェッティ) wrote:
> Frankly, I think comparing it to a high-wire across Niagra is a bit
> much. It's a tool that like anything else can be used by people for the
> wrong reasons. We don't station a policeman on every corner to make sure
> kids don't run into traffic and get hit by cars, we don't put limiters
> on cars to ensure they don't go more than 70mph or whatever the speed
> limit may be in a given jurisdiction, we don't restrict the sale of glue
> to prevent kids from "sniffing" it, we don't require you to be 18 to buy
> a video camera, etc.
>
> If you have a concrete, practical proposal, I think we would all be glad
> to listen and provide feedback. Continuing to throw out analogies is not
> productive. We're not bad people who want to sell kids geolocation to
> the lowest bidder. Give a concrete suggestion, don't just say "throw out
> geolocation" because by that argument we should also throw out half of
> modern society.

Exactly.

John, look at the API itself from a different perspective (or use case). 
Pretend I have a bunch of cows I want to track in a paddock in the 
outback of Australia. I have a solar powered GPS device hanging 
comfortably off their necks. The device's programmers make use of the 
geolocation API to communicate their location back to a central server 
(via SMS) so they can round them up when needed (or to make sure they 
don't stray onto a road or onto someone else's property). The API itself 
cannot assume that it will always be used to track people.

Here is another way of looking at this: the API is kinda like a single 
cigarette, which in some countries you can buy on its own. The warning 
labels or child protection aspects of the cigarette packaging are 
separate from the cigarette (e.g., shops won't sell me cigarettes if I 
am under 18 without ID - it's the law). The package will warn me of my 
impending doom from smoking the cigarette. The protections are 
nonetheless important, but separate from the cigarette.

So, as Ian said, no one is down playing the importance of this (we were 
all kids once, or have kids, or know kids, or are kids). What practical 
proposal do you have (you also did not answer any of my questions or 
present any evidence that there is a problem)?

-- 
Marcos Caceres
Opera Software

Received on Tuesday, 3 August 2010 10:52:22 UTC