Updated statement on PRISM at aprs.fi

Last night's "statement" was generated using the PRISM involvement denial statement generator, and is not completely serious. Hopefully it'll serve as a little reminder of the privacy aspects of APRS. If you care about your privacy, you probably should not transmit your location to the public. With APRS, you have the privilege of switching your beacon on and off at any time, and it's sometimes a good idea to exercise that right. Some other tracking systems don't let you do that.

APRS data, like all other amateur radio communications, are public and unencrypted, and can be received, recorded and archived by anyone. With APRS, it's just easier to do so.

As for aprs.fi: there have been no requests from governments to aprs.fi at any point. They can just pull the data from the APRS-IS without asking if they happen to care, or use the aprs.fi web UI to look at whatever historic data there is – just like anyone else.