[sspehr]

Google Maps is definitely one of the technically coolest big tech products imo. It's fascinating what kind of non-obvious insights you can get from the combined user data (E.g. Crowdedness of public places, insights like in the article etc.)

[timmg]

What I find very interesting about it is how much data they have (and are able to collect).

I'm personally someone who is less worried about "privacy" for this sort of data. But I know lots of other people feel differently.

To me, this is a great example of the "greater good" for data sharing. But it is also a great example of responsible use of data.

[4gotunameagain]

The value of said data is tremendous, and could lead to great societal benefits if available for research.

So much so that I would argue that google (et al) should be compelled to make the data publicly available.

They have enough money, let's make society better.

[sagarm]

They are making this data publicly available -- after aggregation and anonymization.

[4gotunameagain]

A fraction of the data they collect, to keep up appearances.

[notatoad]

Publicly releasing 100% of the maps data they collect would be the most gigantic privacy violation the world has ever seen.

[4gotunameagain]

Are you seriously suggesting that google is gatekeeping the data because they care about privacy ?