Canadians will soon be able to wield a new weapon in the battle against traffic jams: other Canadians.
IntelliOne, an Atlanta- and Toronto-based traffic-information firm, announced yesterday that it has an agreement with Rogers Wireless to convert the phone company's cellphone data into a sort of real-time traffic congestion map, which users can tap into to determine exactly how long it will take to get from point A to point B.
Unlike other traffic and navigation services that rely on GPS technology, the IntelliOne service will analyze the constant stream of cellphone information travelling through the Rogers network.
At any one time, cellphones (especially in urban areas) are in contact with up to six towers, looking for the best signals. Using the relative strength of those signals, IntelliOne will determine where the cellphones are and how fast they are moving. A host of algorithms then will filter out anything that fits the pattern of a person walking, cycling or not moving at all. The result, IntelliOne's managing director says, is a detailed, block-to-block traffic map.
"Traffic information until now has been anecdotal - one may learn there is a mattress fallen off the back of a truck - but what does that mean in terms of real delay," Bill Tapscott said. "We can say your fastest route to the airport from where you are is this and it will take this many minutes and seconds."
The IntelliOne traffic map service is one in a host of tools the company plans to roll out in the near future through Rogers. Using similar technology, parents will also be able to keep tabs on their children by checking the location of their cellphones: a mix of prudent parent and Big Brother. Other wireless companies have offered similar services, but usually using GPS technology. The IntelliOne service works on virtually all cellphones, not just GPS-enabled ones, Mr. Tapscott said.
But the torrent of information necessary for IntelliOne to provide these services raises serious privacy concerns about where user data are stored and who can access them.
Mr. Tapscott said that before mobile-phone information reaches IntelliOne's computers, all personal identifying information has been stripped off - all the company knows is that a mobile phone is at a certain location moving at a certain speed. Because the amount of data IntelliOne's computers look at is so huge, the information is deleted every 24 hours at most. The privacy onus is largely on Rogers, which will filter out the personal data before information is passed on to IntelliOne.
"There have been questions like, what if the police want to know," Mr. Tapscott said. "[IntelliOne doesn't] have the info to give them."
