Last Friday Billboard insider wrote about Genlogs.io, a company which wants to rent space on billboards to install sensors which measure the real time flow of trucks. Several readers wondered if there privacy issues associated with the product. Billboard Insider asked Genlogs.io CEO Ryan Joyce to address the issue.
Ryan, exactly what information are your sensors tracking?
The most critical piece of data is the truck carrier name and number. This can be found on the side of every commercial truck. We also look at the type of trailer (such as a refrigerated ‘reefer’ or flatbed trailer) and the trailer numbers (to help recover stolen cargo). That’s all we need to help our customers better understand trucking patterns in America.
Privacy issues are a hot button for billboard operators especially in light of the do not track restrictions which many states have on personal computer tracking and cell phone tracking. How is Genlogs complying with privacy issues?
We love this question, because we are also staunch advocates of privacy. It seems like these days there are cameras everywhere. Every single Tesla on the road has eight cameras recording passing vehicles, and almost every truck or Uber driver have dashcams recording vehicles on public roads — and while this is perfectly legal, we were uncomfortable with data collection on private vehicles.
For this reason, our AI filters out ALL private vehicles at the edge — no exceptions. We realize that this limits our ability to help law enforcement solve ‘Amber alerts’ or carjackings, but we believe so strongly in protecting the privacy of everyday citizens that we have taken this hard stance. The ONLY data that we collect is on a commercial truck — our system has to see a USDOT number to even be permitted to enter our system. At that point, we only observe information that is allowed by local and state regulations.
Our focus is solely on understanding what trucks transit certain highways so that we can help get them a backhaul and reduce empty miles. This helps us unlock another $7 trillion of goods to flow through the US economy and reduce 150 million metric tons of CO2 emissions each year. We have no idea who the driver is, nor do we care. Just like flightradar24.com looks at planes without knowing anything about the pilots, or marinetraffic.com looks at ships without knowing anything about the captain, we only care about the commercial flow of goods on trucks.
If you have questions or wish to learn more email Genlogs Chief of Partnerships, Blake Balch at blake.balch@genlogs.io.
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