[OSM-talk] Speeding

jam openstreetmap at jammeh.co.uk
Thu Nov 30 20:49:01 GMT 2006


Robert (Jamie) Munro wrote:

<re timestamps on trackpoints>

 > It's not only speed. It's also when you were where. For example, if you
 > seem to often stop at a certain place late at night and leave there
 > early in the morning, then that's probably your home. You can probably
 > guess your place of work, places and friends you like to visit and lots
 > of other information. While it may not be useful by itself, it may only
 > take cross referencing it with other private information to produce lots
 > of data for identity theft or possibly something like blackmail.
 >
 > Timestamps should not be required by the system, and if the system is
 > given them, it should not store them. It is too much of an invasion of
 > privacy. It may be useful to store timestamps to within a month to
 > detect if roads have been rebuilt since the trace was made, but more
 > accurate than that is certainly not necessary.
 >
 > Robert (Jamie) Munro

I think to remove the timestamps from *all* trackpoints would be major 
overkill. I do agree that allowing users the option of keeping certain 
tracks "private" is important, but we should remember that people can 
obfuscate before uploading if they wish. I'm pondering putting a "fog" 
over some of my start/end areas.
Without timestamps how can I check the average speed of traffic down a 
road (given the time of day even?) and give a user of a "sat nav" 
application a decent eta to their destination?

I'm just back from work and read through the entire thread to make sure 
people hadn't already said this, i'm suprised they haven't.

James




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