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Comment by joezydeco | Hacker News Reader

I don't think we're talking about bathroom hygenic habits here, so let's skip that derail.

Stallman's thesis is "logs have no use". I'm sure the building's owners disagree. Let's think of a possible use-case:

  "Someone stole a laptop from Room 214 over the weekend"

So are the logs useful now?

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Most likely, not very.

Do you honestly think someone who wants to steal a computer will use their own access card?

I think you'd be surprised how many people never think about details like that in the commission of a crime. Also, stealing laptops and computer equipment are crimes of opportunity and rarely do people plan out extensively how they can get away with something like that before they do it.

If the area/door is busy, they just might. Or they might tailgate through a door.

Tailgating through doors is a lot harder when everybody knows that the doors log everything.

Maybe the person before me took the laptop and I didn't notice? Or maybe the person before that? If a laptop is reported missing, there is no definite proof that the person who entered previous to the one who noticed that the laptop missing took it. Correlation does not equal causation.

No, but it narrows down the list from hundreds to a few.

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