[unsigner]

Freely available and openly editable maps might be one of the things that we take for granted, but are simply an abberation of a brief period of peace and civility; now we'll return to the default hobbesian state of affairs.

See also: beautiful, detailed aerial photos of oil refineries posted by amateur drone photographers to public sites. Submarine cables and oil tankers, carrying the world economy on their shoulders without any protection out there at sea.

[Loudergood]

Security by obscurity is an illusion. Bad actors, especially state actors, will have no problem getting this data. We should make this data public so it's expected to be public, and then planners will take the risks more seriously.

[otabdeveloper4]

Do you think James Bond-style special agents are doing the state actor operations, like in the movies?

It doesn't work like that. The vast majority of the time it's regular stupid people that are doing the heavy lifting (often unwittingly) for state actor operations.

So yes, security by obscurity works. It makes the state actor's job that much harder.

[threatofrain]

Bad actors, especially state actors, will have no problem getting this data.

Everything that costs will cost to the degree that it costs. Putting the chocolate milk on the top shelf is enough to encourage children to buy less chocolate milk. The data you're talking about? The place I work at is the one doing the hard boots on the ground labor for aerial data, and from that perspective nothing is easy or free.

One can make great arguments about why people should have access to data notwithstanding all risks, but surely not that security by obscurity is mere illusion.

[cr125rider]

The US Navy posted all over the Gulf of Aden says “ahem?”

[poguemahoney]

Yes, it's a good thing all cables and tankers were relocated to the Gulf of Aden under the follow the protection doctrine.

[ninalanyon]

> default hobbesian state of affairs.

Is it really the default?