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Not the best use of GPS. — Parallax Forums

Not the best use of GPS.

RobotWorkshopRobotWorkshop Posts: 2,307
edited 2012-10-03 06:13 in General Discussion
http://www.zdziarski.com/blog/?p=1270

After reading this I thought this may make a new and excellent project for the Propeller. Instead of just disabling the GPS unit for OnStar, just add a small Propeller board to see if it was remotely polled for position data without consent. Instead of sending the real location just spew out random garbage GPS locations and let that populate their database.....

Comments

  • MicrocontrolledMicrocontrolled Posts: 2,461
    edited 2011-09-21 11:38
    Interesting read, thanks RobotWorkshop. Your potential Propeller project is a good idea, maybe you should give it a go.
  • GadgetmanGadgetman Posts: 2,436
    edited 2011-09-21 13:15
    No, not 'random data', but trips to and from military facilities...
    (you can find the on Google maps. Sure, the resolution stinks, but you should be able to make up some good coordinates from the pictures)

    Area 51 should be good...
    CIA Headquarters should also be good for a laugh...

    But you'll need a set of accellerometers to detect an accident and switch it back to real data.

    You may want to check if the data contains elevation, too...

    come on, sing along;

    We all live in a yellow submarine,
    yellow submarine...

    Maybe add a SD-card reader so that users can add custom datasets...
    (A favorite band's world tour, Nurenburg ring, Paris Dakar - the classic route, Tour de France, Trans-siberian railway... )
  • WBA ConsultingWBA Consulting Posts: 2,935
    edited 2011-09-21 13:16
    Wow, and I thought only I occasionally read the "fine print". I have recently uninstalled software because the new version available allowed my usage statistics to be sent back to the company. This particular software package would be used for data that fell under ITAR regulations and that was a big red flag since the software developer was outside the U.S.

    gadgetman: awesome ideas! would love to see the faces of onstar data collection staff when that comes through......
  • GadgetmanGadgetman Posts: 2,436
    edited 2011-09-21 13:23
    Onstar?
    Can't imagine them actually checking the data before selling it...

    Try imagining the Highway patrol setting up a speed trap on the access way leading to 'Area 51' or Langley?
  • RobotWorkshopRobotWorkshop Posts: 2,307
    edited 2011-09-21 14:04
    The story is also being picked up in some other places:

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/21/onstar_ecall/

    http://consumerist.com/2011/09/onstar-now-tracking-your-car-even-after-you-cancel-service.html

    Did George Orwell start working for them?
  • RobotWorkshopRobotWorkshop Posts: 2,307
    edited 2011-09-27 11:34
    Looks like they finally decided it wasn't the best idea after all....

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/09/27/onstar-kills-its-terrible-plan-to-track-non-customers-driving-data/
  • Peter KG6LSEPeter KG6LSE Posts: 1,383
    edited 2011-09-27 14:04
    This one was stopped , but it shows . READ the TOS AND EULA people ! You don't need a lawyer to smell Poo .


    >> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/19/aes_crypto_attack/ worries me ..
  • SRLMSRLM Posts: 5,045
    edited 2011-09-27 23:42
    Another point to support putting your own computer system in the car...
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2011-09-28 00:32
    Provide Lady Gaga's itinerary as data. They might think you are a stalker, but feed them 'garbage in' until they foolishly act on it in a 'garbage out' fashion. So far, I don't own a cell phone with GPS, but it seems that all the new ones in the USA require GPS.
  • prof_brainoprof_braino Posts: 4,313
    edited 2011-09-28 05:54
    Loopy Byteloose wrote: »
    cell phone with GPS, but it seems that all the new ones in the USA require GPS.

    Even if you don't have GPS, your cell phones's postion can be triangulated from cell tower signals. It's not quite as accurate as GPS, but is fairly easy to do for the provider.
  • Martin_HMartin_H Posts: 4,051
    edited 2012-10-03 06:13
    The problem with providing spurious data is that they likely wouldn't notice it. If this was anything like a typical data mining project, they don't care about the actions of one person. They look for statistical correlations among the actions of many persons and outlying individuals are just noise.

    tl;dr aficionados of Tuvan throat singing and Balinese gong music aren't like to find music services like Pandora to their liking.
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