cellphone tracking data Interesting debate. I don't see the big deal here, though. A lot of valuable information can be gleaned from using cell phones as anonymous mobile transponders. The key is that the wireless carriers not pass on any personally identifiable information to the company doing the aggregation and analysis, and that the scope of the information is geographically limited. Requiring consumers to opt in would render this concept DOA. I would be interested in seeing the details of what raw data they are intending to turn over. The way the wireless carrier should do this to keep me happy as a consumer who values his privacy is to send the aggregator a feed of lat/long with some ephemeral ID that is constant for my phone (maybe changes daily), but cannot be resolved back to the ESN or phone number. Moreover, they should only do this if the location is within some geographic mask that represents highway systems of interest. I wouldn't want them to send a record of me pulling into my driveway, for instance. This way, we get the utility without giving up privacy. Seems like a win-win to me. -- Kris On 11/30/05 14:25, "David Farber" <dave@farber.net> wrote:

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Richard M. Smith" <rms@computerbytesman.com> Date: November 29, 2005 12:12:46 PM EST To: EPIC_IDOF@mailman.epic.org Subject: [EPIC_IDOF] Getting consumers' consent to sell cellphone tracking data

Hi,

The Baltimore Sun and New York Times recently ran articles about the State of Maryland getting ready to roll out a traffic flow monitoring system which works by tracking the position of cellphones which are being carried in cars. The Baltimore Sun article is still online at this URL:

Cell phone data tracing traffic in Md. System 'watches' vehicles, raises fears about privacy http://tinyurl.com/7we6q

Virginia and Missouri are also about ready to test similar systems.

I want to see a requirement put into place that wireless companies must get a customer's written consent before any of their cellphone position data is turned over to a third-party for any uses not related to making cellphone calls.

I recent contacted the Maryland Highway Department and requested a copy of the contract for the system. The contract is now online as a Word document file on my Web site:

http://www.computerbytesman.com/privacy/mdotcontract.doc

I haven't had time to review the contract yet, but I did see that the funds for this Maryland project are coming from the Federal Highway Administration (http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/). Perhaps the FHWA are the folks who should be requiring consumers to provide consent to have their cellphone position data sold to other companies.

Richard M. Smith http://www.ComputerBytesMan.com

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