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Uber Gives Cities Free Travel-Time Data (usatoday.com)
Uber is now "leveraging anonymous GPS information from hundreds of thousands of online Uber vehicles" using a new tool called Uber Movement. An anonymous reader quotes USA Today:
Uber is going to make urban traffic and mobility data gleaned from its millions of drivers and riders using the Uber app freely available to all. The data, which shows anonymized travel times between points in cities, will be available on a public website called Uber Movement. Uber says it will first invite planning agencies and researchers to access the information and then make the website free to the public... The San Francisco-based company decided to release the data when it realized it had "this very valuable but untapped resource for understanding a city's transportation infrastructure," said Andrew Salzberg, Uber's head of transportation policy...
Pegged to a transportation conference in DC on Sunday, the release is also likely is a bid to gain some goodwill with cities, with which Uber has often had bare-knuckled fights over regulation... Uber Movement doesn't map individuals rides, but rather segments of rides, focusing on travel time between specific points... The Uber data will give cities a low-cost way to do high-resolution travel time analysis
Boston's chief information officer says the new tool "gives people tools to ask us questions. That's really powerful."
Pegged to a transportation conference in DC on Sunday, the release is also likely is a bid to gain some goodwill with cities, with which Uber has often had bare-knuckled fights over regulation... Uber Movement doesn't map individuals rides, but rather segments of rides, focusing on travel time between specific points... The Uber data will give cities a low-cost way to do high-resolution travel time analysis
Boston's chief information officer says the new tool "gives people tools to ask us questions. That's really powerful."
Awesome, tell my girlfriend she really needs to take that pill last month.
Uber also worked up a slick 60-second video about it...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Drivers and riders did not giver permission for data to be collected to be provided to Government.
Just because you can, doesn't mean source of data gave knowledgeable permission...or even had a chance to say no to not have that data collected and forwarded to the government.
If that data is given to the government, the it is now available for ANYONE to request from the government...great way to stalk an ex-girlfriend
Uber won't even give data to its own partners even when it is the partner's own data. They aren't just going to give any data away to anyone, ever.
Boston's chief information officer says the new tool "gives people tools to ask us questions."
As one of the people let me say that I'm fed up of tools asking questions, even if they are the bosses.
NYC to Collect GPS Data on Car Service Passengers—Good Intentions Gone Awry or Something Else? https://freedom-to-tinker.com/...
1. Like any good drug dealer, the first taste is free. EG: Uber gave it away this time, but wait until the hook is set and then they will charge for it. I wouldn't mind if Uber either gave me a discount or let me opt out. Yeah, that's not gonna happen.
2. Anonymous today, meta-data tomorrow if not yesterday. Big data is just another way to say Big Brother.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
It'll be some time until we got this figured out. In the mean time, expect sneaky moves.
This is something cab companies already do, and Uber has been refusing. Now that they're complying with city regulations and behaving slightly responsibly, everyone is supposed to be so proud of how helpful they are.
They're still bandits.
And the king should still hang them when he catches them.
Rule 35 of the internet: "If it can be hacked, it will be". - Charles Stross
Dear Mayor, Contrary to reports, the data has no bias or selection process applied before it was handed off to you. Trust it implicitly. Uber is your BFF. Sincerely, Uber.