When technology crosses limits!

GPS is overly intrusive

THOUSANDS of cabbies in New York went on strike for two days last month to protest a city rule requiring that all 13,000 cabs get the equipment by year’s end, and among their gripes was that the technology was faulty.

But the new features worked properly 99.21% of the time during a series of checks by the Taxi and Limousine Commission staff last month, the agency said. The lowest individual grade was 96%, according to the TLC.

“The monitoring process we have in place will ensure that the Taxicab Passenger Enhancement Program does everything it was designed to do and that taxi riders get to enjoy the most that these amazing systems have to offer,” TLC Commissioner Matthew Daus said. Installations are taking place in waves, and the TLC scrutinized the equipment in more than 2,300 cabs last month.

The Taxi Workers Alliance, the group that called the two-day strike last month, has blasted the Global Positioning System as overly intrusive tracking by Big Brother. And they cited technological problems, including credit-card transactions not going through, that have resulted in drivers not getting paid. Taxi Workers Alliance head Bhairavi Desai called the TLC statistics “nonsense,” saying the agency did not seek input from drivers who use the systems for up to 12 hours a day. Instead, she said, the vast majority of inspections were simply brief checks of the equipment, a less accurate assessment. “It’s just a whitewash,” Desai said.

The drivers’ group has called another strike for Oct. 22 and is urging members to park their cabs and attend a noon rally outside TLC headquarters. www.nydailynews.com

Google map may break Canada privacy law

The Street View feature of Google Maps, with its close-up views of city streets and recognizable shots of people, could violate a Canadian law protecting individual privacy, officials said recently.
Google Inc introduced street-level map views in May, giving web users a series of panoramic, 360-degree images of nine U.S. cities. Some of the random pictures feature people in informal poses who can clearly be identified. The images for Canada were produced in partnership with a Canadian firm Immersive Media Corp, which says it has taken similar street level pictures of major Canadian cities. Canadian law obliges businesses wishing to disclose personal information about individuals to first obtain their consent

Canada’s Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart wrote to Google in early August asking for more details. She said if the Street View product were expanded to Canada without being amended; it could well violate privacy laws. Stoddart said pictures of people on Street View were clear enough to be considered personal information. Stoddart sent a similar letter to Immersive Media and the documents were posted on her website, www.privcom.gc.ca

No one from either company was immediately available for comment and Stoddart did not give either firm a deadline for a reply. If Google launched Street View in Canada without taking privacy laws into account, Stoddart could launch an official investigation, said her spokesman Colin McKay.

“We thought we’d get out in advance of any implementation and ask them how they were going to take into account Canadian privacy rights,” he said.

“From our point of view, if you spot yourself and you perceive that as a violation of your privacy rights, then the act has already been violated,” added McKay. http://investing.reuters.co.uk