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Comment by ScottFree | Hacker News Reader

I'm more worried about stalkers, psychotic exes or angry twitter mobs being able to buy this data.

This is a good point. The parents of Children killed at Sandy Hook have been persistently harassed online by Alex Jones listeners including death threats and doxing. Imagine how much worse it would be if they could just publish their exact GPS coordinates.

What's stopping them? You can buy this information right now.

Fortunately for our collective sanity InfoWars listeners ~arent famously bright people.~ havent yet learned of this harassment technique.

I will refrain from commenting on the particulars as they relate to this InfoWars of which you speak, but in general it is one of the facts upon which our society's relative safety rests, that those who wish to do harm, to deceive and to pursue malice are frequently not those amongst us most blessed with the gifts of intellect.

Or perhaps the smart ones that wish to do harm don't intend to do it on such a small scale as publishing the location data of a couple of individuals who are of relatively little consequence. It's a dangerous idea to assume that all those who are malicious are not intelligent.

> It's a dangerous idea to assume that all those who are malicious are not intelligent.

I agree on this point - there is an important distinction here between "frequently" and "always". We should be vigilant indeed and seek to uncover the true purpose of those who are malicious and deceitful. The previous remark should perhaps be taken more as a statement of relief, that fortunately there is often an inverse relation between maliciousness and intelligence.

I'm new here. Doesn't this sort of comment violate the guidelines?

Not if it is intended purely as a question. It is true that the phrase "what's stopping them?" could be interpreted as an incitement, but this is Hacker News not one of the grubbier corners of the internet, and the first interpretation is surely the correct one.