Naver Map will start tracking your locations and use them to improve mapping, make suggestions/recommendations based on your driving habits, and in the near future to offer insurance products and discounts.
Apparently Naver Map app will now have a "feature" where it stores all of your driven routes where you have used the turn-by-turn navigation feature. No, not just the route that it recommended to you, but the actual route that you drove.
To see them yourself, go to the Navigation tab and choose Driving Records:
I can't show you an example of mine, because I haven't agreed to these new terms. I'm not sure I want to.
If you do, you will see a list of your drives like this:
As you can see, it shows starting and ending points, how long it took, how far you drove, and a visual representation of your route. Neat I guess.
I think as long as it's possible, I will stay opted out of this. Here's why:
- Do you really want all your drives (at least, those that utilized Naver Map) stored? Imagine the legal implications. Imagine your wife wanting to check up on you. Did you really visit the office, or did you visit a new golf range your boss insisted you all go to. What time did you arrive and what time did you come back? Busted. Boss suspicious you're making detours to a hoff after lunch instead of coming right back? Maybe he demands you activate this for keeping tabs. I'm not saying this is likely, but it does seem a little creepy that it's possible, and that they're stored in the cloud for Naver to peruse. Yes this is a paranoid idea, and you can always just turn it off. But that would assume you know by heart where you're going. Do you?
- I don't want "helpful" suggestions and recommendations. Why do we need such intrusive data mining these days? If it sees that I commute a certain route every Friday, do I need it to pop up with a suggested restaurant for lunch? I can easily just push the Restaurant button if I want. I feel like this data is more valuable to advertisers to than me personally.
- Insurance discounts? I'm skeptical. More like your insurance premiums might go up when Naver reports to their 3rd party partners that I have been routinely going above the speed limit. Do you really want an insurance company knowing your GPS locations and speeds when driving? This reminds me of how many Koreans that I have seen install those "Earn store points just for walking!" health apps on their phones that monitor every sensor and motion.
- How long until this type of system makes automated ticketing viable? Already the CCTV dings you with fines if you happen to speed through their observable area. I can imagine a future where they don't even need those: your smartphone will do all the spying on you for them.
Alright maybe I'm paranoid and maybe there is good reason to enable a feature like this. Maybe you like revisiting long trips you've taken. It certainly would be good for retracing your steps back to that romantic obscure seaside outdoor restaurant where you confessed your feelings for Mr/Mrs Right.
For now, I think I'll stick to only allowing the Required permissions.
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