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@goldfish

Except the data is released months later, making the connection basically useless. It also doesn't let you create a pattern of someone's movement, because you can't connect any one trip to another trip. It's not like you can just pop on the site and immediately see where someone went.

Also, your neighbor example is bogus. Knowing "when your neighbor leaves for work" isn't enough to track the trip; in order to pick the right trip from the data you have to know exactly when they picked up the bike from the station in order to identify their trip.

The idea that there is a danger that someone could take observations of you at bike stations and then try to pick out your endpoints months later is ridiculous. I suppose it's POSSIBLE, but it sure sounds like a lot more work than just f-ing following someone if you want to.

I think in most of our minds that potential danger doesn't begin to outweigh the usefulness of the data. "Fuzzying" times by 15 minutes would hurt the integrity - if someone wants to develop a model for looking at patterns of docks emptying/filling then 15 minute intervals isn't a good enough resolution.

by MLD on Jan 13, 2012 11:36 am • link • report

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