Transport for London plans to collect data from passengers' mobiles
1–10 of 118 posts
Re: Transport for London plans to collect data from passengers' mobiles
#2Why do they need to do this? They already track people with Oyster and contactless which gives them journey information. This is just a convenient data grab and profiteering.
I'm going to sound old and curmudgeonly here, but I'm starting to miss the days when we bought paper tickets with cash.
Re: Transport for London plans to collect data from passengers' mobiles
#3Why do they need to do this? They already track people with Oyster and contactless which gives them journey information. This is just a convenient data grab and profiteering. I'm going to sound old and curmudgeonly here, but I'm starting to miss the days when we bought paper tickets with cash.
Because they don't know where people go on the system. All they know where you entered and exited.
Re: Transport for London plans to collect data from passengers' mobiles
#4Why do they need to do this? They already track people with Oyster and contactless which gives them journey information. This is just a convenient data grab and profiteering. I'm going to sound old and curmudgeonly here, but I'm starting to miss the days when we bought paper tickets with cash.
>profiteering
TfL is a not-for-profit.
Re: Transport for London plans to collect data from passengers' mobiles
#5Why do they need to do this? They already track people with Oyster and contactless which gives them journey information. This is just a convenient data grab and profiteering. I'm going to sound old and curmudgeonly here, but I'm starting to miss the days when we bought paper tickets with cash.
Oyster allows them see entry and exit, but is doesn't show what route the customer took, which lines did they take if a change was required.
It also allows TFL to see where people travelled within the station concourse, how long they took, and what print advertising they would have walked past from turnstile to train.
Re: Transport for London plans to collect data from passengers' mobiles
#6I think a lot of transportation departments have been doing the same thing with car Bluetooth transmitters to monitor traffic patterns in real-time.
Re: Transport for London plans to collect data from passengers' mobiles
#7Does anyone know if the iPhone's MAC randomization has any effect on this?
Re: Transport for London plans to collect data from passengers' mobiles
#8This is why I switch my wifi radio off every time I leave home. Especially when going to travel via the tubes.
And this is why the "50-shades of wifi off" of ios 11 is so idiotic.
Don't have iOS 11 yet so don't actually know how many steps I need to take.
Re: Transport for London plans to collect data from passengers' mobiles
#9Does anyone know if the iPhone's MAC randomization has any effect on this?
As far as I know, the iPhone only randomizes its MAC address after the device has been locked for two minutes and not connected to any known networks. Two things that are very unlikely to happen in a subway. One of the advantages of riding the subway is that you can use a phone and the other one is that there is rarely any cell connection (at least in my subway), so you need WiFi anyways.
WiFi randomization is great if you are going to the store by car because the devices on the way there cannot track you but once you arrive there, check your texts it is game over.
Re: Transport for London plans to collect data from passengers' mobiles
#10Why do they need to do this? They already track people with Oyster and contactless which gives them journey information. This is just a convenient data grab and profiteering. I'm going to sound old and curmudgeonly here, but I'm starting to miss the days when we bought paper tickets with cash.
Oyster allows them see entry and exit, but is doesn't show what route the customer took, which lines did they take if a change was required. It also allows TFL to see where people travelled within the station concourse, how long they took, and what print advertising they would have walked past from turnstile to train.
It's notable that there's quite a few places in busy stations where the most direct route between two lines (or from one line to an exit, etc.) isn't signposted, because the footfall between them exceeds the capacity of the (typically older) direct tunnel.