Starfleet sure has some weird practices when it comes to "privacy"
Then again, with how much can be done casually by literally anyone who is on the ship, not just starfleet personnel, what even is privacy anymore in 2380?
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It's way worse than that. People multiple times just ask the computer where people are, and it just tells them. It's not based on rank, either. One of those random 20th century humans that got Futurama'd into TNG gets the location of the frickin' captain by just by musing to himself about where he'd be and the proceeds to barge in on negotiations with the Romulans that are about to trigger a war.
Also, if I recall, they barge in on Barclay's little Troy porno at one point. So just so you know the holodecks don't seem to have locks.
I think the first case is because the norms and social mores of the age would never be okay with someone doing that, so there are no technical stops in place due to social stops.
The second case is just TV convenience. No way a society with a perfect holodeck doesn't either lock or has moved past any sexual hangups that a 90s TV audience would have.
More to the point of the "sexy deck", if there were no locks and people are still prudes, people would not just be fucking away 10ft from the door instead of instancing themselves hundreds of virtual miles away first. Everyone would put at least one Sherwood Forrest between themselves and people snooping.
I'm not sure that the holodeck works like that. I could be wrong but if you go in the holodeck and get in a car and drive 100 miles and then get out and summon the holodeck door...it's just right there. You don't have to go back a hundred miles. So there really is no way to put "virtual distance" between you and the door. From my understanding anyway.
But when someone else enters the holodeck through the door, are they virtually right next to you (100 miles from your starting point) or do they also start at your starting point? If two people enter the holodeck together and one person stays near the entrance while the other drives off, then a third person enters the holodeck, where does that third person appear?
It's super inconsistent, and the technology seems to mostly work on dramatic convenience.
You're coming to chat with your ex about feelings and jealousy and stuff? Door pops up right there. You're coming to bust the porny creepo? You spawn just out of sight so you can catch him in the act. Here to rescue your friend in peril from semi-sentient noir characters? You spawn all the way across the map.
The computer is sassy like that.
All very good questions.
To be fair, I already share my location with multiple friends and family. That cat is out of the proverbial bag.
I can easily see the enterprise defaulting to sharing locations, unless asked otherwise. I can also see the crew not caring, unless it's actually being abused.
The crew absolutely should care, given the number of times shit goes bananas on that ship. The officers have been repeatedly compromised by every sort of physical and mental mayhem-causing malady in the galaxy. They've contracted viruses that litterly drive them to do insane things.
Not to mention every single time the ship gets compromised, that data is actively used by the invading party.
All that being said...starship vessels operate like a navy. The Captain has absolute authority over their ship, and that's necessary because they are the ones with ultimate responsibility for the safety of every living being on it.
So yes, passengers and crew are tracked, and it's an understandable safety and security tool.
The problem is literally anyone can access that data without any authorization, approval, or rank. That, and individuals do not have the ability to opt out of it should they need to
I agree with most of that. However, do we know that you can't opt out? The ship will be gathering the data no matter what. Obviously command crew/security likely have an emergency override as well. At that point, it's just a courtesy situation.
If you're a petty officer, who needs to deliver a report in person, being able to check where the captain is would be highly useful.
If it's just a case of saying "Computer. Mark my location as private." and so lock it down to security critical personnel only, what's the issue? I suspect it's just a change of norms in Starfleet.
You are raising the concept of Starfleet officers having to go through their tracking cookie setups and privacy settings for their entire service and you're ruining the entire setting for me. Please stop.
proceeds to barge in on negotiations with the Romulans that are about to trigger a war.
ON THE BRIDGE NO LESS! Like he apparently has full authorization to go to critical areas of the ship - bridge, engineering, deflector control, etc. (I know he didn't go those places that we saw, but plenty of other visitors have.)
