TomTom kicked up a privacy duststorm last week by admitting it had sold users travel data to Dutch police so they could better place speed cameras. According to David Ramli at the Financial Review, TomTom Australia is set to sell your data to the highest bidder later this year.
It’s not really a secret that TomTom has been collecting journey data for itself over the past few years, in order to offer better traffic advice through its iQ Routes function, but according to the Ramli piece, that information is set to be sold off.
TomTom claims it is to try and better our road networks, but ultimately the information could be used by police to place speed cameras, marketers to place advertising, among other things.
TomTom are adamant that all the information is anonymous, but that doesn’t really matter. Among the information they are selling are start and end destinations, as well as trip information. What does it matter to a criminal with access to this information if they don’t know your name if they know precisely what time you leave for work every day and the address you leave from?
TomTom’s other excuse is that sharing the information was opt-in, although it’s self-evident that most people who opted in would have done so for the benefit of better traffic information for themselves, not for TomTom to sell their info to someone who would take advantage of that.