Programs like COTRAVELER should be common knowledge here on HN. Therefor, every HN who chooses to carry their tracking device must believe that such a program (and the surveillance state in general) is not a credible risk.

Is this certainty due to the current state of privilege enjoyed by the average Silicon Valley tech employee? Is this a consequence of the notoriously bad human capability for risk assessment?

I suspect that the risks of allowing both business and government to generate realtime location maps and infer relationship information are overlooked because it is easy to be distracted by shiny baubles and clever gadgets while ignoring the tracking device those baubles and gadgets are tied to.

So go ahead, be happy with all of the cool toys you get to use with your phone. I hope you're also happy with the surveillance state you're helping to create. If you're lucky, nobody will use those records of your associations in the future for some ugly purpose.