Missouri Passes Bill, Approves Contract to Track Drivers by Cell Phone

[Leshrak]

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=1214736

In what would be the largest project of its kind, the Missouri Department of Transportation is finalizing a contract to monitor thousands of cell phones, using their movements to map real-time traffic conditions statewide on all 5,500 miles of major roads.

http://www.elfis.net/phorum/read.php?f=45&i=469&t=462



http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/06/696.asp


http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansas...l/12849605.htm


And the latest, http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansas...l/13314831.htm

Posted on Fri, Dec. 02, 2005

As early as next week, that company, the National Engineering Technology Corp. (NET), will start monitoring thousands of cell phones in Kansas City and St. Louis, using their movements to test how to relay traffic conditions to the public in real time.

While officials say the program will make Missouri a national leader in "intelligent" traffic management, privacy advocates are concerned that getting more frequent travel time updates on road signs and Web sites may come at a price.

The program charts drivers' relative speed by measuring the time between the intermittent signals cell phones send to towers along a stretch of road. Then, that information - stripped of the personal identification and serial numbers that identify the cell phone's owner - is overlaid with highway maps to determine where the phones are and how fast they are moving.

I read a couple weeks ago(forget which site) that the company is actually Cingular, but I didn't read all of these articles fully. I just remembered this after reading the last RFID thread, but figured this is different and contraversial enough to warrant its own thread. How the hell long is it going to be(if it isn't happening already) before this information isn't "stripped of the personal identification" and citations start hitting the post office? The potential for abuse is huge!

WTF!!!!!! I'm going to start turning off my cell phone when I'm not making a goddamn call, or get rid of the thing entirely. This kind of bullshit pisses me off to no end.

[Leshrak]

After looking back through some old posts, I saw that the original article's announcement was made in a different thread. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to know that the plan has now been in action for the last month.

From that last link,

Under the terms of the $6.2 million, two-year contract, NET will wholly own the information and is free to sell it to outside vendors that could profit from offering just-in-time travel updates. The government has no authority to monitor where the information ends up, but Hillis said that after two years, the state may enter a revenue-sharing agreement with NET.

"If you travel on a certain route every day, we'll eventually be able to give you alerts to see if an instance would keep you from getting to work on time," said Steven McDonald, a senior project manager for NET. "This has a lot of potential."

[Nyravar]

WTF!!!!!! I'm going to start turning off my cell phone when I'm not making a goddamn call, or get rid of the thing entirely. This kind of bullshit pisses me off to no end.

We can only hope others choose to protest in the same manner.