Hacker News Reader

Comment by rainbowmverse | Hacker News Reader

Imagine the call is from a gay bar (or the vicinity). The data leaks. Now coworkers know, none of them are okay with it (even if they never confirm their assumptions), and there are no legal protections when they get fired.

There are a lot of non-obvious ways seemingly-innocent data can harm marginalized groups.

View on HN

You are calling 911. The purpose of the call is specifically to ask the government to send someone to your location.

>> "You are calling 911. The purpose of the call is specifically to ask the government to send someone to your location."

Correct. I'm not asking the private company "RapidSOS" to relay my location to the government. The endless string of leaks makes me distrust companies with data. Every party I depend on having good security is a new party that might screw up, or intentionally misuse the data.

The involuntary risk surface area is already large enough.

This thread started because someone was concerned that OMG, law enforcement might actually get the location info that you're trying to send them.

If your concern is specifically about the 3rd party getting the data because they're acting as intermediary, I can understand that. I don't agree, but understand.

Your phone already has your location through a number of means, it’s not like 911 is suddenly creating this fact. If you’re going incognito, and you have your phone on you, you’re not incognito.

I'm not okay with that either. Just because data is already collected for one purpose doesn't mean we have to accept further encroachments on privacy. Every one increases the surface area of risk for a dangerous leak.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com