Google Maps Enhances Traffic Reporting While Scaring The Crap Out Of Me

They know where you are. And by they I mean Google and anyone holding a subpoena!

Have you ever checked out the traffic using Google? In the past few weeks a major change has totally transformed the experience making traffic reporting on Google so good I am petrified of the technology behind it!

When you choose to enable Google Maps with My Location, your phone sends anonymous bits of data back to Google describing how fast you’re moving. When we combine your speed with the speed of other phones on the road, across thousands of phones moving around a city at any given time, we can get a pretty good picture of live traffic conditions.

They’re reading the GPS on your cellphone. They know where you are. And by they I mean Google and anyone holding a subpoena!

google-maps-traffic.jpgThe cool part is being able to aggregate the GPS data from many phones. Right now Google shows some slowdowns on I-95 in Fairfield County, but they also show Whitney Avenue in Hamden running well with discrete green lines for north and south. There are some minor secondary roads you’d never expect to see tracked which are!

Sometime very soon technology like this will integrate with the data in your GPS to seamlessly route you around traffic in real time. The upside potential is great. Think of the savings in worker productivity and gas consumption.

The scary part is this is one more way we’ve lost any semblance of anonymity.

I’m not sure why I care, but I do. I’d like my thoughts to be my own. I’d like my route… my travels to be my choice without question or oversight.

Who am I kidding? That ship has sailed.

4 thoughts on “Google Maps Enhances Traffic Reporting While Scaring The Crap Out Of Me”

  1. I would freak about the privacy part too, Geoff, except that it doesn’t matter if Google has that info or Verizon/Sprint/ATT.. it’s still subject to subpoena (or even release without subpoena..) So may as well let Google make some use out of it, since your carrier has the data anyway – and has for quite some time.

  2. Saying it’s already part of our lives doesn’t make me feel better. The cellphone companies are responsible to us through the FCC. Not so with Internet companies. If you’re a tiny problem for Google (while Google’s an immense problem for you) there is little if any recourse.

  3. google’s trade practices and privacy policies are subject to regulation by the Federal Trade Commission and state AGs. These regulations need to be furthered.

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