14 DAY TRIAL // While you are driving, your mobile phone might prove to be more useful than you think, but not to you. It is quite simple really.
Because of the fact that the cameras and radar systems - used to monitor traffic - can be very expensive, several companies thought about an alternative, less money consuming of course, that concerns your mobile phone. Since the vast majority of people currently own a mobile phone and most people take their mobile with them wherever they go, IntelliOne and AirSage realized that, by using anonymous data from Wireless providers, they could actually establish how fast the cell-phones are moving.
And of course, since the mobile phone would be in your car, that basically means that they would establish exactly how fast you are moving.
If this service were to be launched, individual customers would receive personalized information or route alternatives when needed in exchange for a monthly fee or a single use fee, while Media Outlets would gain access to broad snapshots of a city's traffic situation. Apparently, not very many people think this is such a good idea.
"This is your personal information. Shouldn't you have the right to control whether people know where you are?" asked Melissa Ngo of the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center. "When I signed up for a cell phone, I did not sign up to be tracked."
While this service can prove useful when someone is going too fast, it doesn't work as well when cars are going slow, because there is no way to tell what's slowing the drivers down. Not to mention the fact that some drivers might just leave their mobile phone home when they hear the news.