Posted on 12/25/2005 5:28:12 PM PST by elkfersupper
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Missouri transportation officials approved a controversial contract Friday that will allow a private corporation to track signals from motorists' cell phones to map traffic snarls and highway congestion on major roads throughout the state.
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.
"This is a leap forward in our nation," said Missouri Department of Transportation Director Pete Rahn, minutes before the Highways and Transportation Commission's unanimous vote to authorize the contract. "No other department of transportation will be able to keep the users of their system as well informed."
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.
In six months, transportation officials say, Missouri motorists will be able to calculate their commute times by viewing such maps on the government's Web sites. Distilled versions of the information will also be displayed on electronic road signs along major highways, they said.
Cell phone monitoring already is being used by transportation officials in Baltimore, though not yet to relay traffic conditions to the public. Similar projects are getting under way in Norfolk, Va., and a stretch of Interstate 75 between Atlanta and Macon, Ga.
But monitoring phone signals along Missouri's 5,500 miles of major roads, many of which run through rural areas where cell phone coverage is spotty, makes for an additional challenge. On Friday, state officials had not determined which cell phone companies would provide information for the program.
That raised eyebrows at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).
"Consumers should have the right to opt into this public service," said Lillie Coney, associate director of Washington, D.C.-based EPIC. "Missouri may be creating a base for a new industry on the shoulders of the taxpayers."
Don Hillis, the director of system management for the Department of Transportation, said the state explored other options to provide the traffic flow information that motorists and logistics planners now expect and decided that wireless data collection was the cheapest way to go.
"We'll be able to give our drivers traffic information throughout their trips," said Hillis, who has overseen the project since its inception. "That said, we recognize the importance of the privacy issue, and we wouldn't do business with any company that would take any steps in the future to infringe on those rights." Hillis said regional planning commissions like the Mid-America Regional Council and the East-West Gateway Council of Governments will also have free access to the data to tackle congestion problems.
And as wireless technology evolves, Missouri officials believe there may be so much interest from users outside the government - such as trucking companies, satellite radio, mobile phones and GPS devices - that their investment could pay for itself.
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."
>>>Gee, just put some camera's out there on the overpasses, no need to track people<<<
No one is being tracked - just counted...
I still don't like it. Of course I don't like 99.9999% of ehat government does. I am beginning to believe that government is not a necessary evil, just evil...
Okay, good point. So the government is paying a private company to spy on drivers. Thanks for explaining.
No one is being "spied on" in the sense you are thinking.
Is everyone out to get you or what??
The total paranoia on this thread is rather amusing.
People, on a daily basis, through their every day life, do far more to provide the kind of information that they are afraid that this technology could provide, but does not.
Oh, so you think you know my thoughts? Hmmm...should I get out the tinfoil?
Is everyone out to get you or what??
Nah... but I think I've bought my last American car, now that they have the nice little black boxes that would never, ever be used to prosecute people for alleged violations....well, until they started using them for that, despite their precision and accuracy problems. Or like the gun registrations that could never, ever in paranoid nightmares be used for confiscating guns...until they were. Et cetera.
Nope...luckily not everyone is out to get me...but I do pay attention and I know history.
>>>Hmmm...should I get out the tinfoil?
Yes.
You provide more data that can be mined to track you through your daily existence than this system could ever dream of collecting.
Do you actually believe that it's a conservative point-of-view to support the government sponsoring competition against private enterprises, especially to collect tracking data via a private contractor?
But they do it voluntarily, thats the difference
I choose what data I expose on here (does voluntary vs involuntary mean anything to you?). Yes, they are several, but this would be taxpayers funding an additional datum that I don't want collected. Yes, they have the ability and right to track those emissions, but that doesn't mean I'm happy about it or want to pay taxes for it!
>Yes.
Nah, I don't think you need foil...you're not a nutcase...just a socialist. ;-)
>>>Nah, I don't think you need foil...you're not a nutcase...just a socialist. ;-)<<<
Now that is just plain rude and uncalled for.
The technology being proposed does not do what you, and all the other nattering nabobs of unabashed paranoia think it's will do.
Yeah, and throwing around claims of paranoia is not? Sheesh...left your sense of humour afk, eh?
The technology being proposed does not do what you, and all the other nattering nabobs of unabashed paranoia think it's will do.
And now you will tell us all how you "know" this?
"dogsqueeze"
I like it.
Here's another one: "Puppy Pasta"
Ouch....good point.
Heck, you need an older model for your state. The roads in New Mexico (If you can call them that) would chew up and spit out most newer model vehicles.
I haven't yet install the new RFID-chip memory card they sent me in the mail last month. It works fine without it so the new card can sit in my desk as far as I'm concerned.
Using a credit card during the day probably gives out the most information of anything.
Is keeping the phone turned off sufficient to not be tracked from cell to cell?
Powder..Patch..Ball FIRE!
Yeah it was posted and got no attention at the time...
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