ENG:Allison is a Spai (Required Reading)

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Actually, the title, "Allison is a Spai" is not true, but it's more attention grabbing than what the real headline should be:

Allison and Your Privacy and How it Relates to Search and Rescue, So Please Fly with Her (required reading)

So, since this is required reading, let's get on with it.

As a member of Signal Cartel, we encourage you to always fly with Allison in your travels through space. We ask this because our EvE-Scout Rescue (ESR) Division counts on the location information that Allison provides to them (about your travels) in order to find those poor lost souls who have turned to Signal Cartel, and entrusted us, for their rescue. Even if you never plan to participate in Search and Rescue (SAR) operations, you are helping by just flying with Allison.

It's true that flying with Allison is not a requirement for membership in Signal Cartel, but many of your fellow corp mates rely on the information she provides.

The purpose of this document is threefold:

1. To disclose precisely how Allison works
2. To put your mind at ease
3. To convince you to please fly with her

“I don't care! I don't want to be tracked!”

You won't be! Please read on. As with the reputation of Signal Cartel, we have been extremely protective of the reputation of Allison throughout her development. Because of this, our pilot's privacy, and their safety in space, has always been at the top of our list of considerations.

Thus, it is important that you understand how Allison works, and what she records, and how that information is shared, in order for you to have no reason NOT to fly with Allison.

What Allison Does

Allison tracks your movement through space in the sense that she always knows what solar system and/or space station you are in. However, this is transient information that is not stored, and no one, not even A Dead Parrot (Allison's caretaker), has access to any pilot's real-time location (with certain exceptions explained below).

What Allison Records

Each time your location in space changes, the information Allison records depends on where you jumped from and to, as follows:

• Jump from Known-space (ie: High sec, Low Sec, or Null sec) to another k-space system through a jumpgate:

Allison records nothing. Travel through known space via stargates has never been recorded in any way.

• Jump from k-space to wormhole space (j-space) and vice-versa:

These jumps are recorded in her database as a wormhole connection. She records the system you came from, and the system you jumped to, and the time. Allison does NOT record WHO made that jump. No pilot information of any kind is recorded in association with that location, or the jump to it (unless you specifically ask her to; more below). These connections are the bread and butter of ESR Search and Rescue.

• From j-space to j-space:

Treated exactly the same as k-space to j-space. These are wormhole connections and are recorded as such, without pilot information.

• Jump from k-space to another k-space system through a wormhole (yes, these exist):

Allison records this as a wormhole connection, without pilot information.

• If the wormhole you jump into is a system SAR is looking for:

In these special cases, in addition to recording the jump, Allison will (in real-time) alert our ESR Coordinators (and the Leadership Team) via Discord (private channel #esr_coordinators) that the system of interest has been found. She will forward the system name, and the pilot's name so our Coordinators know who to contact in-game to facilitate the rescue. In addition, the pilot's name is recorded in the EvE-Scout Rescue database as a system "Locator" so that Leadership knows who to pay the bounty to (more on that below). If you are the second, third, and so forth, pilot to enter the system you are recorded as a "Rescuer". The list of ESR Coordinators who receive your real-time location information is short. Signaleers can find a list of current ESR Coordinators here.

In addition, A Dead Parrot can see this information too (as Allison's programmer, he gets to hang out in the clubhouse).

• Exceptions to all of this:

If a pilot chooses, they can have Allison "RECORD PILOT TRAVEL HISTORY" with each wormhole jump. This will only happen if it is selected. This is in Allison's settings tab – and must be turned on manually. The setting defaults to disabled, and is opt-in only.

So, Why Turn "Record Pilot Travel History" On?

Two reasons:

• If you turn it on, you will be able to see a record of all of your wormhole travels with Allison through her "MY MAP" function. (You can also download your data to a CSV file - or SSV for you folks with European versions of MS Excel)
• Allison's "ROUTES" function can find travel shortcuts through wormhole connections in space, including all connections through Thera, and any connections you have made. But only if she knows it was you that made that connection.

More Benefits of Flying with Allison

As an added perk, if you fly into a wormhole that SAR is looking for, while flying with Allison, you will receive the bounty (finder's fee) for that system.

Note: Pilot's do not need to enable "RECORD PILOT TRAVEL HISTORY" to be eligible for the finder's fee perk.

These bounties can approach and sometimes exceed...ONE BILLION ISK, just for finding the wormhole!! You can see the current active SAR requests, here.

So, you can see that even if you are not active with EvE-Scout Rescue and you never intend to rescue a lost pilot yourself, just flying with Allison contributes immensely to the efforts of Search and Rescue, and possibly your own wallet.

The reputation of Allison, and the integrity with which she is developed, is something we all strive to protect as strongly as we protect the reputation of Signal Cartel itself.

So please, boot up Allison the next time you undock...and tell her that A Dead Parrot said hello.

Allison is found at this location: https://evescoutrescue.com/copilot

Reference

Original forum post: Allison is a Spai (Required reading)

Reviewed for accuracy 12 Nov 2023 - ADP