TomTom Sold User Data to Police, Motorists Then Targeted With Speed Traps
news.consumerreports.org
news.consumerreports.org
"Here's the situation:
-TomTom, when you first set your GPS up, asks you if you want anonymous time/location travel data to be sent to TomTom. You can say no if you want. This has been going on for years.
-TomTom sends this anonymous data to authorities and governments with the idea that it will help them know where to build new/better roads etc. This has been going on for years.
-TomTom finds out that Dutch police are using this data to set up speed traps. TomTom, as a courtesy, lets everyone know what the Dutch police are doing, while they decide what to do about it.
And somehow the headline we get paints TomTom as evil jerks for this? They are the ones who let you know about what Dutch police are doing. This is a press release that they issued. They are warning you."
If the data was sold to US police departments, things could play out very differently. Highways under MUTCD jurisdiction (basically any roadway receiving FHWA funds) are supposed to set speed limits according to prevailing traffic conditions (specifically the 85th percentile speed, see http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/htm/2009/part2/part2b.htm#section2... ).
A lot of times speed limits are set by statute with no engineering studies behind them to justify the limit. If the Tom Tom data point out that traffic is exceeding the speed limit at a location, that would be evidence that the posted limit is actually too low and the limit should be increased.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2491729
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2490690
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2497611
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2494170
Etc.
/sarcasms :)