Tracking Your Cell Phone for Traffic Reports

BostonBTS writes "IntelliOne Technologies has just launched a real-world test of Need4Speed, a real-time traffic-monitoring system that tracks drivers' cell phones. From their website: 'Unlike any other solution available today, the IntelliOne Roadway Speed Measurement System produces live roadway speeds for all highways and surface streets where mobile phone coverage exists, accurate to within three miles per hour.' Of course, any compulsory phone-tracking system raises privacy concerns. According to an article on LiveScience, 'the personal identification data of users will be stripped from cell phone signals before they are processed by IntelliOne's software.' The cell phone companies have this data, but IntelliOne says they won't be keeping their copy."

Comments

Privacy Concerns

[Anonymous Coward]

'the personal identification data of users will be stripped from cell phone signals before they are processed by IntelliOne's software.'

Yes... and only their 10 digit user id/phone number will be left behind.. no names...
Oh wait... sorry... wrong company

Of course!

[dotslashdot]

And of course, AOL won't be releasing your search terms, the NSA won't be listening to your phone conversations or tracking your surfing habits, private companies won't be stockpiling huge warehouses of data to give to the government and you can trust a president who choked and fell while eating a pretzel to check and balance himself.

Oh yeah, like it's going to be anonymous

[MikeRT]

Who needs Soviet-style internal passports when they can not only GPS-track your cell phone, but can also track how fast you are moving. Here comes version 2.0: it automatically calls the police and tells them approximately where they will need to be to catch you based on your current speed and direction!

Re:Oh yeah, like it's going to be anonymous

[Kesch]

Most cellphones have a few back doors, being OFF isn't always good enough. To truly make sure that your cell phone is inert, you have to remove the battery. (And I do have to do this now and then to conform with security policies involving cell phones and secure areas at my worksite.)

Hi, my name is Pat Riot

[Travoltus]

I'm utterly appalled at the way you make fun of America's growing surveillance system. What's wrong with sacrificing privacy for safety? Your opposition to the free market usage of your personal information smacks of Godless communism. What do you have to hide? Aren't you aware that surveillance is needed to defend our constitution from our enemies? And please stop making fun of the good people at the NSA, they only have your best interests at heart.

[end neo con parody]

Re:This is not GPS

[StikyPad]

The other huge boon to this is for the state. Imagine if you could see traffic trends by the minute covering trends over months. You could quickly identify dangerous traffic areas, distractions, traffic quirks, and all sorts of oddities that could be engineered around to reduce injuries, fatalities, and expenses.

Well that's the best case, but I'd find it much more likely that the state would look for stretches of road where the average speed exceeds the speed limit, aka "areas of potential revenue and quota filling."

Re:Now all they need

[stox]

They have had this for some time. it is called TMC (Traffic Message Channel), which is uses RDS (Radio Data Service) to send messages to the navigation unit. Garmin has units that support it, and I am sure there are others.

Where have I heard this before?

[evilviper]

A bit off-topic, but have you heard they're going to be tracking cell-phone signals to monitor traffic patterns? It's amazing! Why doesn't slashdot ever accept a story on the subject?

You can read more here:

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/19/143247

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/19/074524 8

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/01/159241

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/16/076217

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/12/30/124324 7

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/06/13/042822 9

There, that's better. Hopefully, one day they'll come to their senses, and post a story or two on the subject.