Re: Position escrow

[Lucky Green <shamrock@netcom.com>]

On Tue, 21 Apr 1998, Phil Karn wrote:

> This is a really difficult issue. Even the most diehard cypherpunk
> cannot doubt the usefulness of a cellular position reporting
> capability in an emergency situation, when the user *wants* the cops
> or whoever to know where he is.  The big problem is how to keep it
> from being used (or abused) for "law enforcement" purposes without the
> consent of the user.

Usfull != good idea. If the information is available for some purposes, 
it is, or soon will, become available for other purposes. The only way to 
prevent this is to not make the information available for *any* purpose.

I gladly take the cellphone without 911 locator over the cellphone with 
24/7 postion escrow. Furthermore, I content that there is no middle 
ground between the two. Assuming of course the phone doesn't have an 
active locator device that can be enabled using a special 911 button.

YMMV.

-- Lucky Green <mailto:shamrock@netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred