Home location, privacy

[+cerberus1]

My neighbors know where I live so why would I care if a geocacher knew where I lived? I have locks on my doors and locks on my car. I don't see how a geocacher would be any different then anyone else knowing. Any random person could try to break in at any time.

 

This is NOT THE POINT!!! the point is that Groundspeak uses private information and throws (or threw) it public by use of the LiveAPI.

 

But that is not the point being raised in this thread by the OP, who was only concerned about being able to hide her activities from another cacher.

 

The fact that there was a bug in the API which potentially allowed people to see home co-ords is a different matter.

Sure you don't have this thread mixed up with another?

The OP says, "The reason I start this thread is to share the knowledge that your homecoördinates which are clearly marked as private aren't as private as said."

[+GEO-BREIN]

My neighbors know where I live so why would I care if a geocacher knew where I lived? I have locks on my doors and locks on my car. I don't see how a geocacher would be any different then anyone else knowing. Any random person could try to break in at any time.

 

This is NOT THE POINT!!! the point is that Groundspeak uses private information and throws (or threw) it public by use of the LiveAPI.

 

But that is not the point being raised in this thread by the OP, who was only concerned about being able to hide her activities from another cacher.

 

The fact that there was a bug in the API which potentially allowed people to see home co-ords is a different matter.

 

This is what is said in the starting thread:

The reason I start this thread is to share the knowledge that your homecoördinates which are clearly marked as private aren't as private as said.

[+MartyBartfast]

 

But that is not the point being raised in this thread by the OP, who was only concerned about being able to hide her activities from another cacher.

 

The fact that there was a bug in the API which potentially allowed people to see home co-ords is a different matter.

 

This is what is said in the starting thread:

The reason I start this thread is to share the knowledge that your homecoördinates which are clearly marked as private aren't as private as said.

 

Sorry, you're right, I thought I was replying to the other thread re "stalkers" - my mistake

[knowschad]

My neighbors know where I live so why would I care if a geocacher knew where I lived? I have locks on my doors and locks on my car. I don't see how a geocacher would be any different then anyone else knowing. Any random person could try to break in at any time.

 

This is NOT THE POINT!!! the point is that Groundspeak uses private information and throws (or threw) it public by use of the LiveAPI.

 

But that is not the point being raised in this thread by the OP, who was only concerned about being able to hide her activities from another cacher.

 

The fact that there was a bug in the API which potentially allowed people to see home co-ords is a different matter.

 

True about that not being the point of THIS thread, but untrue (apparently) about it ever being a bug. Perhaps an oversight that was fixed, found to have broken other things, then put back in place with a randomized obfuscation.

[+The Leprechauns]

My neighbors know where I live so why would I care if a geocacher knew where I lived? I have locks on my doors and locks on my car. I don't see how a geocacher would be any different then anyone else knowing. Any random person could try to break in at any time.

 

This is NOT THE POINT!!! the point is that Groundspeak uses private information and throws (or threw) it public by use of the LiveAPI.

It is important to pass MY home coordinates through the API so that, using authorized partner applications, I can do things like calculate the distance of my finds from home. I would assume that my home coordinates wouldn't be made available to other geocachers -- only to me.

 

So which API partners were letting this information be available beyond its intended purpose? And is that permitted under their license agreements?

[knowschad]

My neighbors know where I live so why would I care if a geocacher knew where I lived? I have locks on my doors and locks on my car. I don't see how a geocacher would be any different then anyone else knowing. Any random person could try to break in at any time.

 

This is NOT THE POINT!!! the point is that Groundspeak uses private information and throws (or threw) it public by use of the LiveAPI.

It is important to pass MY home coordinates through the API so that, using authorized partner applications, I can do things like calculate the distance of my finds from home. I would assume that my home coordinates wouldn't be made available to other geocachers -- only to me.

 

So which API partners were letting this information be available beyond its intended purpose? And is that permitted under their license agreements?

I have not verified this for myself, so please excuse me (and correct me) if I'm wrong, but I believe that I read that the situation came to light when somebody wrote a GSAK script that revealed it. Is it possible to use the API via GSAK macros that anyone is able to write?

 

ETA: Yes, I believe it is, from what I read in the GSAK and GS API help files.

Edited March 30, 2015 by knowschad

[+WarNinjas]

My neighbors know where I live so why would I care if a geocacher knew where I lived? I have locks on my doors and locks on my car. I don't see how a geocacher would be any different then anyone else knowing. Any random person could try to break in at any time.

 

This is NOT THE POINT!!! the point is that Groundspeak uses private information and throws (or threw) it public by use of the LiveAPI.

My bad. I don't think I read the whole thread before replying.