Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

TomTom caught selling speed data to Dutch Police

TomTom's CEO apologized to customers and said that assisting police with speed traps went too far.

As if this week didn't have enough privacy snafus already, GPS maker TomTom now admits that it helped Dutch police set speed traps by selling anonymous user data.

With the rise of built-in navigation on smartphones, the GPS industry is facing a decline in revenue. As the Associated Press reports, TomTom hopes it can offset losses by selling traffic data to local governments.

Although the data given to Dutch police was anonymous, TomTom admitted that assisting police with speed traps went too far. "We never foresaw this kind of use and many of our clients are not happy about it," chief executive Harold Goddijn wrote in an e-mail to customers.

However, TomTom isn't finished collecting and selling anonymous user data. The company will merely modify its licensing agreements to prevent the kind of use that Dutch police sought. TomTom hopes that traffic data can help local governments reduce traffic bottlenecks and improve safety -- while making a little extra dough for the company.

Privacy issues have been all over the news this week, with Apple and Google responding to concerns about location tracking on the iPhone and Android devices, and Sony revealing that personal data and passwords were stolen in last week's PlayStation Network breach. TomTom's timing couldn't have been much worse.

Follow Jared on Facebook and Twitter for even more tech news and commentary.

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: Apple, etwork, Facebook, Google, Newman, Sony, TomTom
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: Apple, consumer electronics, Google, GPS, navigation, privacy, security
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • No Bull - What Customers Should Expect from Cloud Services
    This paper describes how a cloud Services User achieves the true benefits of cloud services and sends warning messages to the providers, hosting companies and telecommunications firms. It also provides clues on how a customer can gain better value from services offered by the new cloud companies and Hosting businesses.
    Learn more »
  • Why Encrypt? Securing Email without compromising communications.
    Encryption is a vital component of any DLP strategy. It allows businesses to exchange sensitive information without compromising on security; even if data is intercepted, encryption makes it unreadable and renders it tamper-proof. Read on.
    Learn more »
  • Top Reasons to Implement an SOA Governance Strategy: A List for IT Executives
    Service-oriented architecture (SOA) has moved beyond hype to widespread acceptance as an IT strategy for delivering business value. SOA promotes the notion of modularity, providing overwhelming flexibility and superior economics for addressing business demands. However, undertaking the transformation to SOA is not without its challenges. If left unchecked, your inventory of SOA assets will become unmanageable; the reuse of services will diminish in favor of custom development; or even worse, modifications will be made to your existing services that break other business processes. The purpose of SOA governance is to help you ensure that this does not happen. This paper outlines the most compelling reasons for you to establish SOA governance within your organization.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.
Recent comments