I saw an entry at Techdirt that reminded me of an email exchange I recently had with John Maloney about Google's linking up telephone number reverse searching with map locations.

"At what point will people realize that technology is just a tool, and it can be used for both good purposes and bad purposes? Every time people realize that a tool might be used for bad purposes they seem to freak out. The latest is that people are worried that online mapping services might be used by stalkers to find out where you live. Of course, there are plenty of other ways to find out where someone lives, but because mapping tools and phone books are available online for free, people are freaked out. While the vast majority of users use these tools for perfectly legitimate reasons, there are always going to be some people who use them for nefarious purposes. That doesn't mean that we should ban the technology, but teach people about it so they understand what can be done."