Finns To Use Cell Phones To Monitor Traffic Jams

Okko writes "The Finnish Road Administration announced it is going to use cellphone location data to find out about traffic jams. They say they are using the location data available from the GSM base stations to determine the locations and speeds of vehicles carrying mobile phones. The information will be used to inform people about traffic jams and peaks in traffic trough public FM radio stations. Until now, the information about traffic has been gathered using car sensors embedded in the roads. The spokesperson of FRA, interviewed in the evening news of MTV3 Finland, seemed very pleased they can monitor cell phones even when no calls are made, it is enough the phone has power on. They said they are about to use the information anonymously and thought people approve it as long as it is done in an anonymous and "everyone-wins" way. It was told they do not currently tell the police about the data they discover as the current law forbids this. So, it is not, at least yet, possible to fine people carrying mobile phones in their cars too fast on public roads (exceeding the speed limit of the road). Unfortunately, probably because of vacations, FRA has not updated their website accordingly yet. There does exist an annoucement about testing the technology from the summer. "

Comments

Re:So they say they,ll use the info anonymously..

[arivanov]

Nothing actually holds them to their word on this.

Do you think that Finland is a village in Alabama or something? Finland is a civilised country. And as such it has data protection regulations and telecoms laws you have hardly dreamed of. In order to get to that data police need

• 1. A court warrant on a specific person
• 
  2. Having obtained the court warrant they can start recording only the specific subset they have been granted access to.
  3. They have no access to any prior data except the last 60 days of billing (and nothing but billing).
  4. Any non-billing data that can personally identify an individual may not be retained by the telecom operator and is immediately destroyed after operational use.

Germany and other EU countries have similar laws. There are exemptions of course. Like the UK.

But overall, the police cannot get to any data of practical interest for the prosecution of minor misdemanors.