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Privacy in the Woods?
Rorschach1 asks: "I work with a local Search and Rescue team, and for some time I've been thinking about the possibility of installing sensors at a few critical trail junctions in the local back country. The sensors would detect passing hikers and report timestamps to an Internet gateway in near real-time. When a hiker goes missing, this information could be very valuable in determining where search efforts should be directed.
However, I've spent enough time on Slashdot to know that whenever you start monitoring or tracking people and their activities, someone's going to get upset. So I'd like to hear from the tinfoil hat brigade - what are your objections to such a system, and how might your concerns be addressed?"
Yeah, public phone booths dotted throughout the woods sounds like a good idea. Next you can add a few malls to let people buy stuff when they're in the outdoors.
Then of course you could build roads to help them get to the malls quicker. Then some houses round the malls, so the mall employees wouldn't have to travel so far.
Eventually you might as well chop down all those remaining trees, 'cause we'll need them build cabins and phone booths in the great outdoors....
you're a vandal
Yup. Guess so. And as long as Big Brother ain't watching, I'm gonna continue to be. But, what am I saying? We'll have systems in place to track everyone everywhere in a few years both to "fight terrorism" and to "protect the children". I'm gonna enjoy being a hardened criminal while I can.
If someone died because the tracking sensors were torn down, you could also be hit with manslaughter or criminal negligence. Assuming they figured out it was you.
Yet another reason to rip down the sensors.
If it's public property then he does own it, so do you and I. Unless a law is passed allowing these things (and only a ballot enfranchising all current and potential users would satisfy me) putting these things up is the vandalism. I would do the same damn thing. If I could do it without causing more harm I would also shoot every tagged animal with a tranq and remove the tag. Nature was not meant to be wired and labeled. I think this is a horrible idea. Just hand out satellite phones at the rangers station for christ sake. mtc.