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Re:Google Trusted Contacts by eternalban on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @08:01AM (#13114247)
> Just to be clear, I don't want this as a 24/7 thing, but rather on those odd occasions where a higher level of alertness is required, i.e. when my older son finishes a band gig at midnight in the seedier part of town.

The disconnect here for me is that your hypothetical is hardly a new phenomena unique to our time. What would you have done in the 50s? 80s? 90s?

Let's put things in perspective here. The very fact that you can have real time updates on the metrics off the /device/ that is expected to be carried with your son means you have a direct channel of communication to your son's device. Worried? Give him a call. Problem solved.

Re:Google Trusted Contacts by notheguyouthink on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @10:11AM (#13115122)
> Worried? Give him a call. Problem solved.

Why? I always see such massive push back to technology in what would theoretically be a tech-adopting crowd.

Why would i, as a band playing Son, want to have to stop practicing or playing a set to call my family back in a timely manner? Couldn't some technology, perhaps a device in my pocket, allow my parents to know where i am, handle the burden?

Why is my mother knowing where i am such an invasion of privacy? Mind you, i'm 30 now, but i don't care if my wife knows where i am 24/7. Hell, i want her to. I'd also like to know where she is. We've got nothing to hide from eachother, so why should the 1950s method of calling eachother periodically to ping our locations be used? Why is 1950s your metric for success here?

I want technology to make my life less of a hassle. By all means, make it secure, i'm not arguing anything different. But i'd like to move beyond 1950 please.

Re:Google Trusted Contacts by cyberferret on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @09:47AM (#13114907)
I would really like to think that this technology we surround ourselves today would make things much easier to stay in touch, no? When I was a kid playing in bands etc. in the 80's, I had to actually put myself in MORE danger sometimes by walking down a street to a public phone to call my parent or arrange a lift after gigs. I am glad my son doesn't have to do that.

"Giving him a call" is all fine, except if they are mid set or are tearing down while another band plays - stages can be loud places, and not the best things for talking on a phone, or even texting when they are busy moving gear. A quick check to see "Oh, he is still at the venue" or "He appears to be at the band's storage lockup right now" is enough for me to know that it is pretty much ops normal.

Re:Google Trusted Contacts by eternalban on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @10:56AM (#13115489)
There is no question technology can improve things. The problem is not the tech, it's society and actors in society. Google and alike are willynilly becoming institutions and "pushback" is not against tech in the least (cell phones are tech, right?).
Re:Google Trusted Contacts by dragonwriter on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @10:19AM (#13115176)
Actually, that doesn't solve the problem that Trusted Contacts solves for location requests, which is specifically providing most-current-known location to a trusted party when the subject is unable to respond (and which does not rely on having a current channel to the device, though the more recent the central server had such a channel, the more current the response can be.)