Missouri to use cell phone data to update traffic conditions, privacy activists in uproar as usual

Sorry for the long title but had to get that all in there. My good friend, MODOT, on the receiving end of much criticism from yours truly has actually done something good here. Or at least they will be. They are planning to use cell phone data to help pinpoint traffic snarls as they develop. Privacy activists are, of course, worried that big brother is watching. Do these privacy activists actually have jobs or do they just spend all their time worrying about stupid shit?

This is a groundbreaking use of cell phone data. This system works by tracking cell phone locations and speed of movement basically. If you have enough phones to track, you get enough data to make this thing work. Apparently it has not been done on this large of scale before.

Read the story here, from Yahoo via AP:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051015/ap_on_hi_te/monitoring_motorists