Then the question remains the same…which is more dangerous, too much information or too little?[/SIZE][/FONT]
I think this is a false choice. The question isn’t the amount of information, but who has access to it. I don’t have a problem with Naval forces having the information or merchant ships having information about ships within their operating area. You don’t have to rebroadcast the AIS signals to achieve this.
When AIS was first implemented (for safety purposes) there were objections based on commercial espionage and piracy concerns. The response was that since AIS was available to only a very limited geographic area, its usefulness as a commercial espionage or piracy tool was limited. Since everyone has joined the maritime domain awareness (MDA) bandwagon, these “protections” have been removed since the signals are being rebroadcast worldwide.
Consider how the LRIT system was set up. The data may only be released to certain entities (flag state, port state etc).