Here's a hypothetical example of an occasion on which we should ask ourselves whether we want to get into something, closer to home, without involving geopolitics. (And I'm not speaking of this Area 51 thing, but the more general question prompted by some projects.)
Let's say some new social networking startup wants to appeal to teens by being edgy/counterculture, and doing automated crowdsourced real-time tracking of local police, as one of the features of their app. (Because casually affecting a hint of teen revolutionary operator, with power over authorities, is easier and more appealing than producing videos of eating laundry detergent.)
If people at that startup stopped to consider unintended effects of that, when used by people they don't want to help (burglars, violent criminals, etc.), I think they'd modify or abandon the idea, before very bad things happened.
Let's say some new social networking startup wants to appeal to teens by being edgy/counterculture, and doing automated crowdsourced real-time tracking of local police, as one of the features of their app. (Because casually affecting a hint of teen revolutionary operator, with power over authorities, is easier and more appealing than producing videos of eating laundry detergent.)
If people at that startup stopped to consider unintended effects of that, when used by people they don't want to help (burglars, violent criminals, etc.), I think they'd modify or abandon the idea, before very bad things happened.