Now Tom-Tom Admits Snitching

Fri Apr 29, 2011 2:53 pm » by **Spock**

TomTom admits to sending your routes and speed information to the police

It appears every gadget in your possession is tracking your location. First it was the iPhone, then Android phones and now it's your bleedin' sat-nav. TomTom, perhaps in a pre-emptive strike against its own user-tracking scandal, has admitted its sat-navs can track users and inform third parties about how fast they're going.

The sat-navs in TomTom's Live range all feature built-in 3G data cards, which feed location and route information back to a central server, which allows TomTom to create a map of congestion hotspots. It's now emerged that this data, however, along with a user's speed, is being made available to local governments and authorities.

TomTom CEO Harold Goddijn revealed the information on the company's website. "We are now aware that the police have used traffic information that you have helped to create to place speed cameras at dangerous locations where the average speed is higher than the legally allowed speed limit," he says.

Knowing the cops can see where you're driving and how fast you're going is eye-opening stuff, but TomTom says the data is anonymous and can never be traced back to an individual user or device. Ordinarily, we'd be reassured by this, but we recall Apple saying something similar before the location-tracking excrement hit the phone-carrying fan.

The good news here, for the paranoid drivers among us, is it's possible to opt out of the data-collection feature on TomTom's Live sat-navs. This rather defeats the object though -- if everyone with a TomTom Live sat-nav opted out, there'd be no Live data to help users avoid traffic blackspots and you'll have wasted your money by splashing out on a high-end GPS system.

Crave is now taking bets on what device will create the next tracking storm. Will our refrigerators start monitoring how many pies we've eaten? Will our door locks start telling our mums that we're staying out til the wee hours? Will our computers tell our boss we've spent all day looking at cats on YouTube instead of doing any... hang on a minute... dammit!

LINK to CNET Article

Fri Apr 29, 2011 3:00 pm » by **Domdabears**

lol i just deleted mine.
we posted the same thing at the same time.
:shooting:

Fri Apr 29, 2011 3:01 pm » by **Spock**

HAHA - we're on a roll with that.

Fri Apr 29, 2011 3:17 pm » by **Alternateworld**

I've never been so glad to own an old tom tom and an old mobile, track my poor ass now f*ckers! :twisted:

But It's not just gadgets they could be using to track us... :nails:

Fri Apr 29, 2011 6:05 pm » by **Mediasorcerer**

im selling my iphone now,fukitall.

were all guilty arent we, just havent been caught yet, watch out for webcams and laptop mics, they track you too,

its a bloody disgrace.

Fri Apr 29, 2011 7:04 pm » by **Boondox681**

just call me...

i posted this on Sat Sep 25, 2010 12:32 pm

CONVENIENCE

all the great aspects of technology are what people mindlessly suck up everyday.
i live in reality.

TOM/TOM-GPS
it's so convenient to have your little map,isn't it?

CELL PHONES
it's so convenient in case of an emergency,isn't it?

yet they can and do track you with both.
that's the reality of technology.
not the IDEA of how technology should be.

peace,gents

Fri Apr 29, 2011 7:08 pm » by **99socks**

It always starts out as a convenience, until so many people start using them that it becomes impossible to function without them.

I fought cell phones for over 10 years... I've always had mine on a family plan, simply because family members thought I needed one. After several years, I actually started using it lol. But I have suddenly found that there is no way I am going to be able to even survive in business without a smartphone... and the thought irks me to no end!

Fri Apr 29, 2011 7:16 pm » by **Boondox681**

howdy socks.
i've never had a cell,i don't have a drivers license,i don't have a bank account,i don't have a credit card or any car payment,i haven't filed in 20 years and haven't used my ss # in the same time span.

i live in peace...underground

Fri Apr 29, 2011 7:21 pm » by **99socks**

boondox681 wrote:howdy socks.
i've never had a cell,i don't have a drivers license,i don't have a bank account,i don't have a credit card or any car payment,i haven't filed in 20 years and haven't used my ss # in the same time span.

i live in peace...underground

Yeah, I have a cousin who is like that too. He hasn't had a "real" paycheck, a bank account, driver's license, put a lease in his name, or filed taxes for over 30 years. Now, he's in his 60's and very ill, but he can't get any kind of assistance whatsoever because he has been off the radar for so long that no one has any records of him even existing, aside from a birth certificate. Going underground and being "free" of course has its romantic associations... and if you can truly afford to ALWAYS be free of the system, then it is in its way it's own heaven. But for those who don't get quite that successful.. It's like shooting yourself in the foot.

Plan wisely!
:cheers:

Fri Apr 29, 2011 7:31 pm » by **Boondox681**

Yeah, I have a cousin who is like that too. He hasn't had a "real" paycheck, a bank account, driver's license, put a lease in his name, or filed taxes for over 30 years. Now, he's in his 60's and very ill, but he can't get any kind of assistance whatsoever because he has been off the radar for so long that no one has any records of him even existing, aside from a birth certificate. Going underground and being "free" of course has its romantic associations... and if you can truly afford to ALWAYS be free of the system, then it is in its way it's own heaven. But for those who don't get quite that successful.. It's like shooting yourself in the foot.

i see your point.
there apparently is one thing your uncle didn't have that i do.
a clan.
being a breadwinner is not the most important role in the clan.
that role is my wife's.
i will never go without.ever.
true socialism..giving and sharing.
BTW..the most respected(not revered) role in the clan goes the the shithole cleaner.
without him,the clan would be decimated.
it truly comes down to one thing:
what is your definition of success?