Your driving data safely in police hands
Jinfo Blog

By Joanna Ptolomey

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I recently bought a new car.  I think I am probably a salesman’s worst type of customer.  I am not impressed by alloy wheels or fuel injection.  I am also not bothered by colours of cars and ‘it looks cute’. 

Storage capacity works for me – will the camping gear fit in, can it take four bicycles and fit my kids and random friends?  There is also one other area in which I seem to be generally out of synch with many other drivers (and salesman) too – the usefulness and my need for Sat Nav.  

As someone who deals in information all the time I have wondered on occasion that there are many interested parties, from diverse markets, who would love to know more about our driving habits.  Where do we drive to, how long do we drive our cars and how often and how fast you drive your car?  Just think about your regular daily jaunts - what would it say about you?  Boring you may think – but I bet someone would buy your data.

To be perfectly honest I was not considering the long arm of the law – the police – to be up there as the number one purchaser of this type of data.  But why not? And as one of the biggest market leaders of Sat Nav TomTom makes a public apology about selling their clients' driving data to the police then it makes you wonder that even my localised supermarket, school run and camping ventures are gold dust in the right hands.

Sat Nav providers routinely do ask for permission to collect personal information from their products users in order to improve their service to create high quality traffic and road information.  However is it a step too far for that information to be sold to local government agencies, including the police, not simply to understand where roads become congested and to prioritise new road development but to erect speed camera traps?

This Dutch case was reported widely and caused the Chief Executive of TomTom to make a public apology stating that they did not intend their customers' data to be used in that way.  I think it unlikely that TomTom would be naive enough to think they could influence how their information is used and for why.  They have been paid – transaction over. 

It is unlikely that TomTom can escape the wrath of the public over this, and in a shrinking product market it is a good revenue stream.  Competition from smartphones and tablets have shrunk the SatNav market by around 15% analysts believe. 

Do I have a Sat Nav in my car?  I told the salesman to take that option out – I don’t need Snoop Dog telling me where to get off for the supermarket.

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