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Sixty-seven percent of smartphone users rely on Google Maps to help them get to where they are going quickly and efficiently.
A major of[sic] feature of Google Maps is its ability to predict how long different navigation routes will take. That's possible because the mobile phone of each person using Google Maps sends data about its location and speed back to Google's servers, where it is analyzed to generate new data about traffic conditions.Information like this is useful for navigation. But the exact same data that is used to predict traffic patterns can also be used to predict other kinds of information – information people might not be comfortable with revealing.
For example, data about a mobile phone's past location and movement patterns can be used to predict where a person lives, who their employer is, where they attend religious services and the age range of their children based on where they drop them off for school.
Perhaps we can carefully craft our data patterns to tell advertisers, "Take a hike!"
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday February 12 2019, @01:10AM (6 children)
I've often wondered how much I, personally, am being profiled as I drive in traffic.
Do I get a rating for what percentile I fall in for progress made along a certain route? I mean, some people consistently choose slower lanes than others - is that data being collected somewhere? If it is, is it perhaps being misused to rate "driver aggressiveness," perhaps for insurance companies?
My morning commute consists of a number of intentional right turns away from busy intersections, passing hundreds of stopped cars as I transfer to a less traveled more open road - that could do incredible things to a metric like: average speed as compared to average speed of all drivers on this piece of road at this time.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 12 2019, @02:41AM
If only you could opt in to voluntarily anonymously provide this data without being personally tracked.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday February 12 2019, @03:12PM (2 children)
If you use some type of turnpike pre-paid scanned gadget for convenience in order to drive through without stopping to pay the troll, you leave a data trail every time you drive through the turnpike.
The anti vax hysteria didn't stop, it just died down.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday February 12 2019, @03:50PM (1 child)
As far as I have experimented in Florida, the Turnpike doesn't care how quickly you get from point A to point B in their system - though back in the days of paper toll tickets I did catch an evil grin from a toll collector when I covered 167 miles in under 2 hours...
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday February 12 2019, @06:59PM
Just because they don't bother to act on it doesn't mean they don't know.
They could also decide to "know" retroactively at any time.
Then select the subset of people who do not have the correct political thoughts for those currently in power.
The anti vax hysteria didn't stop, it just died down.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Wednesday February 13 2019, @02:54AM (1 child)
I wonder when our cars will start issuing tickets to drivers for traffic infractions.
Speeding, stop signs, erratic driving, relaying location to law enforcement if they are interested in getting a slice of the fine.
Otherwise, the vehicle simply shuts down and calls the tow truck.
Americans will buy it if marketing spins it right... Especially rich Americans who need to signal their obedience to marketers. You know. The same folk that buy $100 sunglasses.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday February 13 2019, @03:19AM
Back in the late 70s, the folk who bought $100 sunglasses were the Burt Reynolds Bandit fans who could afford them.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end