> It's hard to get worked up about the concerns raised in this article simply because I view where I'm driving essentially as public information (as almost all of my commute is on public property), and because the data collected is so clearly necessary for providing the features the app advertises.
That part makes sense - you're driving on public roads - but the article mentions a very long list of additional information that is collected on you. Most of which is not clearly necessary for providing the advertised features. That's the worrying part.
In this context it's worth noting that Waze is available in Europe too. And contrary to the US, in Europe you generally have an expectation of privacy even in public and on public property.
Of course you can give that privacy up voluntarily, but I don't think being tracked on your daily commute would sit well with most people over here.
I totally get why people don't want to be tracked, even on public roads, but the transportation engineering/urban planning part of me feels like the (anonymized) data would be FANTASTIC for transportation agencies who spend time/money on getting similar but less accurate data through surveys.
I considered trying to figure out if people could voluntarily submit their trip/GPS data (also anonymized) to agencies instead of the traditional survey but have little idea how to do that kind of stuff.
That part makes sense - you're driving on public roads - but the article mentions a very long list of additional information that is collected on you. Most of which is not clearly necessary for providing the advertised features. That's the worrying part.