[kezo]

The Department for Transport commissioned mobile network operator 02 to spy on 25 million devices as part of a £600,000, two-year study intended to produce a ‘comprehensive evaluation and understanding of the uptake and usage of electric vehicles’.

At the request of the DfT, 02 tracked people’s mobile phone data and tracked car journeys, with EV users identified by their use of EV-related apps.

O2 searched through the web browsing history of its own customers, and those of other networks that ‘piggyback’ on its infrastructure, to identify EV owners.

It also tracked those people’s physical movements and sent ‘anonymised and aggregated’ data before it was received by the department.

The mass surveillance project ended after the DfT concluded that ‘mobile data cannot directly be used to provide information around charging behaviour or travel time

Full story:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/technology/ev-drivers-spied-on-by-the-government-through-their-mobile-phones-as-part-of-nanny-state-plan/ar-AA1XekZP?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=69a23fe99787469e9fd7be3f44246d4d&ei=30#comments

Also covered by Electrifying

 

Topic

[kezo]

https://www.electrifying.com/blog/article/dft-has-been-spying-on-ev-drivers-using-mobile-phone-data

 

[MFillingham]

That’s some Big Brother stuff right there.  I can see someone running to Ofcom or their solicitor about that one.  Data mining the phone then tracking without the customers’ knowledge, that has to breach GDPR right there.

I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.

Mark

[kezo]

I find it shocking that an operator would do this without asking for people to opt in after all they received a tidy sum for doing so. There are plenty of people out there, who are willing to take part in stuff like this without Big Brother secrecy from the DfT or network operator.

I hope 02 loose customers over this.

[Author]

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