University of Minnesota researchers analyzed 120 million vehicle trips across the United States from four Wednesdays in 2021 using driving data on national road networks, speed limits and U.S. Geological Survey elevation data. The analysis included roads with speed limits of 45 mph (72 kph) and higher.
Where did they get the data? Did the drivers of all 120 million trips consent to being part of their study?
“Driving data on national road networks” sounds innocuous, but hides a lot of questions. Was it part of information gathered by the governments for toll roads, or for other reasons? Or was it telemetry gathered from the cars themselves? Do the drivers know that their data on their individual trips is being distributed to researchers?
This is a giant red flag to me. Our information is being distributed everywhere, and there’s fuck-all we can do about it…
If you really want to know, you’d need to get a copy of the paper.
University research on human subjects follow a number of elaborate privacy rules, including those of the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects. Researchers aren’t interested in our individual data; they’re interested in our data in aggregate for statistical analysis.
Where did they get the data? Did the drivers of all 120 million trips consent to being part of their study?
“Driving data on national road networks” sounds innocuous, but hides a lot of questions. Was it part of information gathered by the governments for toll roads, or for other reasons? Or was it telemetry gathered from the cars themselves? Do the drivers know that their data on their individual trips is being distributed to researchers?
This is a giant red flag to me. Our information is being distributed everywhere, and there’s fuck-all we can do about it…
You are very confused. These kinds of studies have been common since at least the 1940s.
I could be. But where do they get the data?
If you really want to know, you’d need to get a copy of the paper.
University research on human subjects follow a number of elaborate privacy rules, including those of the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects. Researchers aren’t interested in our individual data; they’re interested in our data in aggregate for statistical analysis.
Researchers aren’t interested in our individual data, but companies sure are interested in selling it…
Yes, of course. But that’s upstream from this research. The data would have existed regardless.