Google Maps is definitely one of the technically coolest big tech products imo. It's fascinating what kind of non-obvious insights you can get from the combined user data (E.g. Crowdedness of public places, insights like in the article etc.)
I'm personally someone who is less worried about "privacy" for this sort of data. But I know lots of other people feel differently.
To me, this is a great example of the "greater good" for data sharing. But it is also a great example of responsible use of data.
So much so that I would argue that google (et al) should be compelled to make the data publicly available.
They have enough money, let's make society better.