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So how did they solve the "horrible people exist and will use this to stalk and murder their victims" problem? Normalizing these types of things is not great,

So how did they solve the "horrible people exist and will use this to stalk and murder their victims" problem? Normalizing these types of things is not great, imo, and I'm not sure even Apple has pulled it off yet, with their airtags. Any tech that is tracking and surveilling you can be used to track and surveil you, and any company that doesn't explicitly say "we will not harvest, monetize, abuse, or otherwise misuse your data" will harvest and sell your data, using "industry standard" anonymization or other techniques to sell a false sense of security. Any bits of data you give away are bad, but gps style realtime location tracking is dangerous as hell. Phones are bad enough - not sure I appreciate the niche this is filling, or why "even more robust" tracking that works when phones don't is a positive. Plan ahead, use walkie talkies with your buddies if there's no phone service, or so on, the potential for harm from this tech seems to heavily outweigh any ephemeral convenience.

kstrauser 2y ago
> So how did they solve the "horrible people exist and will use this to stalk and murder their victims" problem? My making you pair them with your friends. > not sure I appreciate the niche this is filling, or why "even more robust" tracking that works when phones don't is a positive. You've never tried tracking friends with phones in a super-crowded place where the cell network is falling over, like a baseball game or concert venue. > Plan ahead, use walkie talkies with your buddies That's a great idea! Plan ahead and use a radio-based device to find and navigate to where your friends are. You know. Like the one in this article.
gryfft 2y ago
Addressed in the linked article: > Can the Totem Compass allow someone to follow me home? > The Totem Compass is designed to make it nearly impossible for anyone to follow you home after the event. Because the Unity Mesh Network™ relies on other compasses to communicate, when the festival disbands, the mesh network disappears. At that point, the max range reverts to the peer-to-peer range of 500-1000 meters. > Once you get in your car or rideshare vehicle at the end of the night, you will quickly get out of range of anyone else who bonded with your compass. This means that the only way someone could track you after the festival is if you keep your compass on, and if they stay within 500-1000 meters of you during your entire trip.
- adammarples 2y ago
  Why the thing doesn't just have an off switch...
  - gryfft 2y ago
    It does have an off switch. Repeating from the above for emphasis: This means that the only way someone could track you after the festival is if you **keep your compass on** Also implied in the instructions when you arrive at the festival: Turn on your Totem Compass When I saw the headline I was really ready to make fun of it and say it sounds like more of a Burning Man art project than a viable product, but after reading the linked article, it seems like they really put much more thought into this than I was inclined to give this sort of device credit for.

kstrauser 2y ago

> So how did they solve the "horrible people exist and will use this to stalk and murder their victims" problem? My making you pair them with your friends. > not sure I appreciate the niche this is filling, or why "even more robust" tracking that works when phones don't is a positive. You've never tried tracking friends with phones in a super-crowded place where the cell network is falling over, like a baseball game or concert venue. > Plan ahead, use walkie talkies with your buddies That's a great idea! Plan ahead and use a radio-based device to find and navigate to where your friends are. You know. Like the one in this article.

gryfft 2y ago

Addressed in the linked article: > Can the Totem Compass allow someone to follow me home? > The Totem Compass is designed to make it nearly impossible for anyone to follow you home after the event. Because the Unity Mesh Network™ relies on other compasses to communicate, when the festival disbands, the mesh network disappears. At that point, the max range reverts to the peer-to-peer range of 500-1000 meters. > Once you get in your car or rideshare vehicle at the end of the night, you will quickly get out of range of anyone else who bonded with your compass. This means that the only way someone could track you after the festival is if you keep your compass on, and if they stay within 500-1000 meters of you during your entire trip.

adammarples 2y ago
Why the thing doesn't just have an off switch...
- gryfft 2y ago
  It does have an off switch. Repeating from the above for emphasis: This means that the only way someone could track you after the festival is if you **keep your compass on** Also implied in the instructions when you arrive at the festival: Turn on your Totem Compass When I saw the headline I was really ready to make fun of it and say it sounds like more of a Burning Man art project than a viable product, but after reading the linked article, it seems like they really put much more thought into this than I was inclined to give this sort of device credit for.