Marine Traffic AIS

If you are in the middle of Biscay, Marine Traffic will not show your position because you are out of reach of the land based aerials that collect AIS signals and then feed them to the site. So, you can still have it on "at sea" but turn if off in coastal waters to maintain privacy.
Marine Traffic uses satellites to collect AIS data offshore, but you have to pay extra to see more details than "Tanker", "Cargo Vessel", "Pleasure Vessel" and so on. A lot extra. It's £45/month to track one vessel by satellite, £85/month to track ten.
 
You have ais turned on so you can be seen. How is a web site relaying what other boats see an intrusion?
Your phone tracks you everywhere and everything you do online is watched.
Your car is tracked by anpr, cctv watches you.
Ais is an option so I don't see any problem.
 
You have ais turned on so you can be seen. How is a web site relaying what other boats see an intrusion?
Your phone tracks you everywhere and everything you do online is watched.
Your car is tracked by anpr, cctv watches you.
Ais is an option so I don't see any problem.

You forgot to mention smart speakers that are constantly listening and recording all conversations in the home Amazon confirms it holds on to Alexa data even if you delete audio files

Your internet browser is also tracking your activity unless you use something like tunnelbear or startpage,com


TudorSailor
 
We always have AIS on but we are not Solent sailors. Our family like to keep an eye on us. Our beef about Marine Traffic is that it is not reliable. It works on a catch as catch can basis relying on shore stations over which it has no control. Regularly, we get “lost”between Belle Ile and Ile d’Yeu. These tracking services are hangers on to the AIS system.
 
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We always have AIS on but we are not Solent sailors. Our family like to keep an eye on us. Our beef about Marine Traffic is that it is not reliable. It works on catch as catch can basis relying on shore stations over which it has no control. Regularly, we get “lost”between Belle Ile and Ile d’Yeu. These tracking services are hangers on to the AIS system.

If you want to improve your visibility for your family and friends you should load OnCourse How can I report my positions using OnCourse? onto your phone. Firstly you register with your MMSI. Once you are underway but still within a data connection on the Internet, the app will send your position for Marine Traffic and it shows your position on the website even if it is not picking your AIS directly from a shore station. You can set how long the phone talks to Marine Traffic etc

If you sail an area regularly and know where there is poor coverage you can tell the marina or port that Marine Traffic will give a shore station for free!

TudorSailor
 
Should you want to enable friends and family to track your progress, there are a number of useful gadgets to do this. Like having an electronic tag.

Personally, I like the ones you can send and receive messages on like Iridium Go. Very useful, for example, in keeping up with the football scores whilst you are tootling across, say, the Pacific. As you do. :cool:
 
It seems you are missing my point. Marinetraffic has NOTHING to do with avoiding collisions... They are exploiting ais information without paying attention to privacy. Again, nothing to do with what ais was designed for in terms of navigation safety...


You are aware that Marinetraffic is only one of a bunch of similar sites ? Shipspotter and various others all basically do same.

As a registered user of Marinetraffic ... it provides an invaluable service to us who are interested where our ships / cargoes are and when they will arrive at destination. That means we need to be able to see vessel Name, speed, course, activity previous and present, ETA at designated destination etc. Because of the number of vessel names that are repeated - it is also necessary to have access to details of the vessel ......
Without that level of detail - its not worth anything.

Sites like Marinetraffic were not devised to be yottie sites - they were designed for commercial shipping and associated activities. Because of the nature of AIS - all transmissions are available to be displayed incl yotties, subject to user settings and level of registration.

If yotties were to get together and get such sites closed down ... it would not be long before a hugely greater community would have the sites back up again.... in entirety.
 
You are aware that Marinetraffic is only one of a bunch of similar sites ? Shipspotter and various others all basically do same.

As a registered user of Marinetraffic ... it provides an invaluable service to us who are interested where our ships / cargoes are and when they will arrive at destination. That means we need to be able to see vessel Name, speed, course, activity previous and present, ETA at designated destination etc. Because of the number of vessel names that are repeated - it is also necessary to have access to details of the vessel ......
Without that level of detail - its not worth anything.

Sites like Marinetraffic were not devised to be yottie sites - they were designed for commercial shipping and associated activities. Because of the nature of AIS - all transmissions are available to be displayed incl yotties, subject to user settings and level of registration.

If yotties were to get together and get such sites closed down ... it would not be long before a hugely greater community would have the sites back up again.... in entirety.
The goal is not to shut down but to give users control of their data.
Wirhout this possibility of the users to control their information i thnk these sites should not be ALLOWED to be online.
 
Stealth mode means hiding my ais emmition?
But i want to be visinle to ais ships but hiddem on marinwtraffic...

It's not just Marine Traffic as there are several sites which do a similar thing. There is no way to stop them seeing your AIS data along with the hundreds of ships and ground stations that you are also transmitting to. The only option is to only turn off your transmissions until you are actually on a potential collision course which you will know well in advance through your AIS reception. It is unlikely that the internet sites will pick up your data if it is only switched on for a few minutes.

Richard
 
Stealth mode means hiding my ais emmition?
But i want to be visinle to ais ships but hiddem on marinwtraffic...

So, just to be clear, you're quite happy to transmit your vessel's details and position publicly, to all and sundry, but you want to deny some people the right to use the information which you yourself have placed in the public domain. I don't think you've thought this through...
 
Marine Traffic ought to be the least of your concerns if you use any of the FAANG services. .... which I'm sure you do. Read Don't Be Evil: The Case Against Big Tech by Rana Foroohar
(Facebook Apple Amazon Netflix Google)
 
Hello,
I am a web platform developer and software company manager since 1992(yes, the date is correct), surfed the web bubble, all the net stuff is in my DNA
Don't mix up things.
@Andy Todd in any of those services can you or anyone subscribe, for free and without a single notice: please alert me when Andy Todd leaves home?
Or ANYONE see where you have been?
I have nothing to hide and dont give a crap about what facebook, google or any mobile operator does as the chance of that being used to track me as an individual is safer than what can be done with marinetraffic & co
All sites like marinetraffice, vesselfinder, followmyboat MUST do is have a opt-out for the users.
Yes i want to use my ais.
But, about my ais info being used by AIS agreggators and AIS databases anyone must be able to choose:
A) my boat must not be displayed at all
B) anonimize it just draw the boat icon, no name nor mmsi
C) ok, show it but do not allow history view nor notifications
D) ok, show it all

And i am willing to pay to have my boat tracked by marinetraffic and in private or with my friends. I would even like to give them more information and get things like miles traveled, frequent routes, etc. But IN PRIVATE.
What i dont conceive is everyone's information being used as it is now.
 
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So, just to be clear, you're quite happy to transmit your vessel's details and position publicly, to all and sundry, but you want to deny some people the right to use the information which you yourself have placed in the public domain. I don't think you've thought this through...
Please read my previous answer. I have though this through. The question is: did you?
 
The goal is not to shut down but to give users control of their data.
Wirhout this possibility of the users to control their information i thnk these sites should not be ALLOWED to be online.

AIS websites are not like Google ... Youtube etc. - where there is two way interaction and you can decide levels of privacy.

How do you propose to setup privacy requests when AIS sites are just receiving AIS info of thousands of vessels around the world ? Send each one a questionnaire ?

Anyway - the information available via AIS sites is publicly available info .... which YOU are sending out. If you don't agree - then as others said - switch off Tx and only Rx.
 
Hello,
I am a web platform developer and software company manager since 1992(yes, the date is correct), surfed the web bubble, all the net stuff is in my DNA
Don't mix up things.
@Andy Todd in any of those services can you or anyone subscribe, for free and without a single notice: please alert me when Andy Todd leaves home?
Or ANYONE see where you have been?
I have nothing to hide and dont give a crap about what facebook, google or any mobile operator does as the chance of that being used to track me as an individual is safer than what can be done with marinetraffic & co
All sites like marinetraffice, vesselfinder, followmyboat MUST do is have a opt-out for the users.
Yes i want to use my ais.
But, about my ais info being used by AIS agreggators and AIS databases anyone must be able to choose:
A) my boat must not be displayed at all
B) anonimize it just draw the boat icon, no name nor mmsi
C) ok, show it but do not allow history view nor notifications
D) ok, show it all

And i am willing to pay to have my boat tracked by marinetraffic and in private or with my friends. I would even like to give them more information and get things like miles traveled, frequent routes, etc. But IN PRIVATE.
What i dont conceive is everyone's information being used as it is now.

As you say you are a Software person - then I am surprised by your post. It ignores the sheer difficulty of getting Opt-out possibility .... for the simple reason - the AIS websites are not a two way communication like Youtube ... Google etc.

I am no software developer - but even I can see that the sheer task of getting every AIS vessel to decide privacy level is just too great and basically impossible.

It may surprise some here .... but many ships actually turn off AIS TX .... for commercial and safety reasons. If they can do it - so can you !!
 
Anyway - the information available via AIS sites is publicly available info .... which YOU are sending out. If you don't agree - then as others said - switch off Tx and only Rx.
It is not. This is not correct.
What you are saying is the same as using your car digital dongle (or even the plate) and build a site where i can track yiur movements and receive alerts when you leave home, etc.
You are shiwing the plate/broadcasting yohr it when you pass the highways, right?
Does this make sense? Then why should it be the case for boats?
It is a problen that those sites must handle, not me! And it is doable without paperwork in a similar way you did to activete paypal to yourbank account. All that is needed is the will to do so.
This is serious stuff and will have to be taken care.
Remember the car example.
 
It is not. This is not correct.
What you are saying is the same as using your car digital dongle (or even the plate) and build a site where i can track yiur movements and receive alerts when you leave home, etc.
You are shiwing the plate/broadcasting yohr it when you pass the highways, right?
Does this make sense? Then why should it be the case for boats?
It is a problen that those sites must handle, not me! And it is doable without paperwork in a similar way you did to activete paypal to yourbank account. All that is needed is the will to do so.
This is serious stuff and will have to be taken care.
Remember the car example.

I understand your car analogy but I don't think it is a fair comparison. Virtually every move you make in your car can be, and is, tracked by ANPR. However, this information is not generally sold to commercial organisations because there is no ability for private citizens to opt out of ANPR. Private citizens can, of course, generally opt out of AIS tracking.

Richard
 
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