Hot on the heels of the iPhone tracking people's movements, albeit anonymously, now it has been revealed that the TomTom sat-nav also gathers owner-gathered information, writes Brian Byrne.
And that information has been used by Dutch police to set up speed cameras in locations where the TomTom data shows average actual speeds to be higher than local limits.
TomTom has issued a statement saying that it didn't know the data was being used by police. The company says it DOES provide the data to local authorities to assist them in their planning of new roads and to make them safer.
The company says it will now 'listen to its customers concerns'. It says it will review whether it will allow this kind of usage.
A number of TomTom devices, such as the Go Live 1000, automatically collect the data and upload it to a database on the company's computer servers.
TomTom says all such data is anonymous, and can't result in individuals being prosecuted.
Meanwhile, in its most recent statement, Apple says the information it is gathering from iPhones will be used in the development of a traffic information system which it plans to roll out. Google already has something similar, but insists that not even the anonymous data it collects is given to any authorities.
