Ireland is one of the countries around the world where Google is monitoring real-time traffic speeds via users of its Android system smartphones, writes Brian Byrne.
The surveillance is mostly in Dublin, but also on stretches of the motorway system outside the capital. A much more extensive operation is being done in the UK and other European countries as well as many locations in the US and South America.
If you look at this Google map you'll see the extent of this activity.
It's all based on the fact that when you use a Google map system on your Android smartphone to see where you are, you're telling Google where you are too.
And with some 400 million users of Android phones, there's enough real-time data streaming back into Google's servers to provide fairly accurate traffic conditions in those areas being monitored.
Ever get the feeling that you're being followed?
