Transmission: 5. Filter: Open. Encryption: None. [VIDEO]

[ex_sorted385]

[ The video feed shows Toshiko at her Comms station, looking exactly like every other resident of the ship who has gone for days without a decent night's sleep or a shower. Yes, she is still on duty. ]

Nice to finally have the lights and heat back, isn't it? I'd like to ask everyone a favor. If you happen to stumble across a little piece of equipment like this- [ She holds up a small, crude bundle of circuitry and metal ] -don't panic. It's just left from an attempt we made at tracking the source of those sounds we all heard over the network. A failed attempt, unfortunately, but you can't fault us for trying. In fact, if you find one, we'd be grateful if you'd drop it back by Communications for us.

And by the way, I'm seeing chatter about some changes to our decor. Do I even want to ask?


[OOC: Action for Comms folk is open, network only for everyone else until after Isaac has a chance to make her go back to her room. ]

Comments

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[firstofficer]

[ welcome to spock, he heralds from the land of does not understand this reaction his head cants faintly ]

Communications is attempting to facilitate ship-wide traces on individual communicators?

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[ex_sorted385]

You make it sound so suspicious. The idea is to help Security and Medical better do their jobs, by making it easier for us to track transmissions in the event of an emergency. What if the screams we heard had been coming from one of our communicators? Right now, we've no reliable way to trace a transmission like that to its source, which means wasting time and resources searching. And potentially being too late to help.

[ Of course, it would also mean easier tracking of more sinister types of transmissions, but this is an open feed and Tosh doesn't feel like giving people any more ammunition for their fears. ]

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[firstofficer]

It is merely my concern for the passenger's perception of departmental ethics. Earth's history alone has demonstrated consistent hostility when one's sense of privacy is violated, even with the promise of an exhange for security.

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[ex_sorted385]

I can understand that, though I think that considering our situation and the utter lack of information we're up against here, some of us may have to just accept the role of bad guy when it comes to respecting personal privacy. Maybe if one of the other departments was willing to provide some kind of oversight, though, it might go down a bit better with people. Ultimately, though? I'm not afraid to admit that I'm willing to violate someone's privacy to save lives.

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[firstofficer]

[ his head tilts faintly, an unspoken acknowledgement of the validity of her argument. there is indeed a great deal they're up against, that remains unknown. ]

I am inclined to agree with your assessment.
However, not all individuals with access to communications and subsequently, access to this technology, have had professional training. There have been no mandatory psychological evaluations, chain of command dictating proper and improper use, or screening process of any kind. Further we lack the appropriate channels and regulations necessary to implement punishment for abuses should they occur.

Passengers on board the Tranquility have- a history of harming one another. Would this not present a potential tool to monitor and locate vulnerable individuals?

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[ex_sorted385]

Then we should institute the training and evaluations. But to be honest, we're all going to have to operate at a certain level of trust, combined with a certain level of wariness. You could say that those of us working in Comms should undergo psychological evaluations, but what's the benchmark for 'acceptable'? And who decides? And what kind of professional evaluation has the person doing that deciding undergone? Then what about the other departments? Have those in Security undergone evaluations, and should they? We could just as easily find ourselves in a situation where someone on the security team abuses the power they're afforded. Or in a situation where someone working in Engineering puts us all in danger.

I've no argument against some kind of process to put people in positions of command, to an extent, like department heads or something. But I don't think we're in a situation where we're ever going to have absolute agreement on anything. People are going to have to just let us prove that we can and will do the jobs we've chosen to take on.