> For instance, your proposed solution of just rounding the distance to the tenth of a mile is scarcely better.
I didn't propose rounding the distance as a solution--I mentioned it as an example of the kind of thought that should have started taking place in the mind of someone who was looking to fix the real location issue rather than making a quick change to stop complaints.
> but it's not always easy to see every possible security issue
The quality level of the original fix, in which they sent extremely precise distances, indicates that they put approximately 0 thought into analyzing the issue. It may not be easy to see /every/ possible security issue. But seeing many of them at all requires looking, and it appears they weren't doing much of that. They were getting some serious bad press in July, and their solution was a band-aid rather than an examination of their practices.
The solution may not be obvious, but the problem, especially once brought to one's attention, should have been. It's built into the nature of what they're doing, which makes it especially disturbing that they didn't care enough to put some more thought into it. Their response to the person who reported the problem reflects that as well.
I didn't propose rounding the distance as a solution--I mentioned it as an example of the kind of thought that should have started taking place in the mind of someone who was looking to fix the real location issue rather than making a quick change to stop complaints.
> but it's not always easy to see every possible security issue
The quality level of the original fix, in which they sent extremely precise distances, indicates that they put approximately 0 thought into analyzing the issue. It may not be easy to see /every/ possible security issue. But seeing many of them at all requires looking, and it appears they weren't doing much of that. They were getting some serious bad press in July, and their solution was a band-aid rather than an examination of their practices.
The solution may not be obvious, but the problem, especially once brought to one's attention, should have been. It's built into the nature of what they're doing, which makes it especially disturbing that they didn't care enough to put some more thought into it. Their response to the person who reported the problem reflects that as well.