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TomTom Sold User Data to Police, Motorists Then Targeted With Speed Traps

27 points by thehigherlife 15y ago

stretchwithme 15y ago
I'm not worried. I own a TomTom and know how bad their data is.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
guptaneil 15y ago
Was this data only sold to Dutch police or to US police departments as well? The article is not very clear on this, but mentions Dutch police specifically. Regardless, California drivers beware, police have been really cracking down hard on speeding since last month.
- Anechoic 15y ago
  > Was this data only sold to Dutch police or to US police departments as well? If the data was sold to US police departments, things could play out very differently. Highways under MUTCD jurisdiction (basically any roadway receiving FHWA funds) are supposed to set speed limits according to prevailing traffic conditions (specifically the 85th percentile speed, see http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/htm/2009/part2/part2b.htm#section2B13 http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/htm/2009/part2/part2b.htm#section2... ). A lot of times speed limits are set by statute with no engineering studies behind them to justify the limit. If the Tom Tom data point out that traffic is exceeding the speed limit at a location, that would be evidence that the posted limit is actually too low and the limit should be increased.
  - khafra 15y ago
    It's disturbing how seldom local jurisdictions follow the MUTCD. Just in case one does, though, I'm sometimes tempted to pull over next to those black-hoses-across-the-roadway speed measurement devices and spoof a lot of extremely fast traffic with a pair of hammers or something.
bpodgursky 15y ago
This was on reddit a week or so ago. I thought the top comment on the article there explained it reasonably, so I'm just going to quote it here: "Here's the situation: -TomTom, when you first set your GPS up, asks you if you want anonymous time/location travel data to be sent to TomTom. You can say no if you want. This has been going on for years. -TomTom sends this anonymous data to authorities and governments with the idea that it will help them know where to build new/better roads etc. This has been going on for years. -TomTom finds out that Dutch police are using this data to set up speed traps. TomTom, as a courtesy, lets everyone know what the Dutch police are doing, while they decide what to do about it. And somehow the headline we get paints TomTom as evil jerks for this? They are the ones who let you know about what Dutch police are doing. This is a press release that they issued. They are warning you."
- alanfalcon 15y ago
  The problem as I understand it is that TomTom didn't give the data as a courtesy, they sold the data. Sure, it's good that they've been transparent when they found out about what the Dutch Police were doing, but I don't think it was clear that they would sell your data to government agencies.
drivebyacct2 15y ago
We read about this last week did we not? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2491729 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2491729 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2490690 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2490690 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2497611 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2497611 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2494170 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2494170 Etc.
- gcb 15y ago
  right. let me search before i submit... /sarcasms :)

27 points by thehigherlife 15y ago

stretchwithme 15y ago

I'm not worried. I own a TomTom and know how bad their data is.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

guptaneil 15y ago

Was this data only sold to Dutch police or to US police departments as well? The article is not very clear on this, but mentions Dutch police specifically. Regardless, California drivers beware, police have been really cracking down hard on speeding since last month.

Anechoic 15y ago
> Was this data only sold to Dutch police or to US police departments as well? If the data was sold to US police departments, things could play out very differently. Highways under MUTCD jurisdiction (basically any roadway receiving FHWA funds) are supposed to set speed limits according to prevailing traffic conditions (specifically the 85th percentile speed, see http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/htm/2009/part2/part2b.htm#section2B13 http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/htm/2009/part2/part2b.htm#section2... ). A lot of times speed limits are set by statute with no engineering studies behind them to justify the limit. If the Tom Tom data point out that traffic is exceeding the speed limit at a location, that would be evidence that the posted limit is actually too low and the limit should be increased.
- khafra 15y ago
  It's disturbing how seldom local jurisdictions follow the MUTCD. Just in case one does, though, I'm sometimes tempted to pull over next to those black-hoses-across-the-roadway speed measurement devices and spoof a lot of extremely fast traffic with a pair of hammers or something.

bpodgursky 15y ago

This was on reddit a week or so ago. I thought the top comment on the article there explained it reasonably, so I'm just going to quote it here: "Here's the situation: -TomTom, when you first set your GPS up, asks you if you want anonymous time/location travel data to be sent to TomTom. You can say no if you want. This has been going on for years. -TomTom sends this anonymous data to authorities and governments with the idea that it will help them know where to build new/better roads etc. This has been going on for years. -TomTom finds out that Dutch police are using this data to set up speed traps. TomTom, as a courtesy, lets everyone know what the Dutch police are doing, while they decide what to do about it. And somehow the headline we get paints TomTom as evil jerks for this? They are the ones who let you know about what Dutch police are doing. This is a press release that they issued. They are warning you."

alanfalcon 15y ago
The problem as I understand it is that TomTom didn't give the data as a courtesy, they sold the data. Sure, it's good that they've been transparent when they found out about what the Dutch Police were doing, but I don't think it was clear that they would sell your data to government agencies.

drivebyacct2 15y ago

We read about this last week did we not? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2491729 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2491729 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2490690 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2490690 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2497611 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2497611 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2494170 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2494170 Etc.

gcb 15y ago
right. let me search before i submit... /sarcasms :)