“Fans” of my blog have read the following before:

“When Google does it, it is cool.  When the NSA does it, it is creepy…”

I usually use to to frame an argument that looks at how many people give private organizations lots of power to look at their personal data and complain when government organizations do similar things…

I believe that telematics offers a great opportunity for both telecom service providers and car owners to provide a level of service and information that we/I can even imagine right now. Therese Cory does a great job of looking at some of new telematics developments in Europe.

However, I have to ask if the information that telematics will base its value on will outweigh the risk to personal information?

Cory’s article talks a lot about saving energy with telematics to reduce carbon footprint as well as increase safety of the roadways.  However, can this information be abused?

Will the governments who hope to increase safety issue “virtual tickets” to drivers who speed?

Will vendors or telecom providers mis-use the data associated with telematics and violate privacy laws?

These are all key questions that I think should be answered sooner as opposed to late.

NOTE – Jeff Jonas is one of the smartest people that I have ever seen speak. His blog is one of the great places for discussion of information management and privacy topics… Get it out when you get a chance.