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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.
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Another slashdot story was flashed a while back (13/06/02), but that was pertaining to Scottish company.
...I can see the day where an automated system can automatically flag and/or ticket you for exceeding the speed limit. Of course, they already have camera bases systems today, that photograph your license plate. And if the preponderance of technological competition in the radar-detector-detector-adnasuam world is any indication, there would soon enough be a market for phones that subtly altered the phase or seeming doppler profile of their signals to fool a single tower. Of course, if you show up at another tower 200Km away in 35 minutes, that would still be a little suspicious. ;)
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the pen is mightier than the sword, the sword is mightier than the court, the court is mightier than the pen.
After all, nobody is going to believe that speeding information won't be passed to the police, despite any laws currently in place, therefore, they may well switch off their bloody phones rather than weave randomly across lanes of traffic when making or answering a call the way they do at the moment.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
There shouldn't be any problems as long as the system remains anonymous - hell, they may even be able to inform the police which areas and times have the highest incidence of speeding to improve their ability to ticket people - nothing a radar gun sitting on the side of the road can't do...
At any rate, I would keep an eye on the anonymity of the whole thing - I wouldn't want a ticket showing up form my highway driving.
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
This is yet another part of the system being built up around civilian populations in the West. Perhaps you haven't noticed, but lately (as in the last 5-10 years) new technologies have emergies which on their own might not seem to affect your privacy much. Things like credit cards, email, telephone banking, THE INTERNET, satellites, and more are all capable of spying on you. Sorry for sounding like such a paranoid person, but if all these devices were coordinated we could all be watched. The Big Brother is out there, and this is just another step in the wrong direction...Does anyone actually believe that this sort of information isn't being used (or can easily be used) against you?
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This is all very interesting, but as stated before, there is a privacy risk involved with this. Not only can you actually track where a user goes, you can also track who he is with.
Another point is, who knows how many cell phones are in 1 car ? If you have several cars with 4 people in it, all having there cell phone turned on, then it might look like a traffic jam, or at least very condensed traffic, but it might not be the case.
Or the opposite. If they take an average of 2 phones per car, and it's work time and there are like only people with 1 person in the car, it might look like fluid traffic where there is a jam.
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This is not a dupe (hey, not yet ;) but a similar story was reported a while back. Here is the magic link.
The linked BBC article on the story is in English too.
Can't be too hard... buildings don't move all that fast. Even in traffic.
Cash is easily traceable. That little metal strip in US Currency is not an anti-counterfit device, it's a homing beacon. Each bill has its own signature, picked up any time you walk through a metal detector.
"Well how can they know which bill I have?" you ask? That's not a newspaper salesman in the airport, that's a g-man waiting to give you your change. Once you're marked, the bill sends an electromagnetic signal which switches on all the other money in your wallet so they can use that to track you as well. Or that guy that bumped into you in the alley, He was a carrier, sent to activate your money. They just have to get close to you and they can tag you for surveillance.
NEVER buy anything at the airport! And if you're going anyplace public where they can get near you, keep your money wrapped up in tinfoil, and separate each bill with newsprint. This will block the g-men's activation signal, plus give the added benefit of always having crisp, clean cash.
You think that I'm crazy, you should see this guy!
This use of our cell phones might lead to some serious privacy issues. I dont know if you watched Minority Report. But one interesting aspect of the future in that movie was how pervasive the SYSTEM monitored you (using an iris scan to identify you). Using your cell phone to monitor traffic might seem like a small thing, but it might lead to some serious deteoration of your privacy. Say we have some serious criminal act, and we want to know who might have been near the area, these people could be suspects or witnesses. We could just check who had their cell phones on in the area. This might not seem bad, unless your labeled a "person of interest". I doubt youd like to be under that much scrutiny (sp?)
anyways, just a thought
epicstruggle
"Im drowning here, and you're describing the water!"
Check out the date: 18.6.2002.
The press release talks about monitoring traffic jams on highways. Thus several phones in single car won't make a difference, since dozens of cars will pass checkpoints every minute.
Privacy isn't an issue here. Finland has very strict privacy laws and this system is designed with privacy in mind: System assing different (changing) codes to the each cell phone and it only tracks when code X pass through the checkpoints.
It is also illegal for operators to give information about calls to the police, unless owner is suspected of very severe crime.
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
Germany and other EU countries have similar laws. There are exemptions of course. Like the UK.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.
But overall, the police cannot get to any data of practical interest for the prosecution of minor misdemanors.
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