Vehicle tracking in a few clicks
Three sucess stories.
The vehicle tracking cloud software ex:tracked has reached the next stage of development. The pilot phase of the platform has been completed and the first vehicles have been successfully tracked. The following news article highlights the use of the software in the form of three success stories and gives you a brief overview of how vehicle tracking works and the legal challenges we faced during development.
Do you have further questions about ex:tracked? Please do not hesitate to contact us.
ex:tracked in action - three international success stories
The first tracking was done on behalf of a well-known insurance company for a Mercedes V class.
- The vehicle continuously transmitted its location and could be tracked for more than 1 hour.
- The last location was in France near the German border. There the car was repossessed by EXCON.
The tracking of a stolen Peugeot 5008 clarified further criminal activities.
- By receiving the data of a stolen Peugeot, we were able to identify a location outside of Szczecin (Poland).
- The Polish police found a workshop at the specified location where stolen vehicles are dismantled on a large scale. However, the stolen Peugeot 5008 was not found there.
- A day later, the car was sent again, this time directly from Szczecin. This time the Polish police confiscated the car. There was another garage in the area where authorities found more vehicles that had been reported stolen.
Tracking a BMW prevented an attempted insurance fraud.
- ex:tracked located a BMW at a location in Serbia.
- Curiously, the vehicle was reported stolen more than a day later - with the same date - even though it had been in Serbia for a long time. With this knowledge, the insurance company uncovered an attempted insurance fraud.
How does telemetry and connected car tracking work?
Telemetry and connected car data tracking relies on a variety of sensors and communication systems that are built into modern vehicles. These sensors can measure and record various parameters such as GPS position, speed, acceleration, braking, engine performance and more.
The telemetry data is continuously collected by the sensors in the vehicle and transmitted to ex:tracked via a data broker using a wireless connection such as cellular or WLAN. There the data is stored, processed and analyzed.
Connected car data includes additional information collected via the vehicle network or wireless interfaces such as Bluetooth or cellular connections. This includes data on maintenance needs, vehicle status, fuel consumption, passenger comfort, and entertainment offerings.
By combining telemetry and connected car data, companies and organizations can gain a comprehensive picture of how their vehicles are being used, where they are located, and what condition they are in. This information can be used to efficiently manage fleets, optimize routes, predict maintenance needs, prevent fraud and improve safety.
Legal challenges to vehicle tracking
There are legal challenges associated with vehicle tracking in Germany. The principle of legitimate interest, the duty to mitigate damages and the duty to investigate a possible criminal act as important legal principles are sometimes in conflict with data protection and privacy as well as consent and the duty to inform. ex:tracked enables companies to track vehicles in a data protection compliant manner.
Data protection and privacy
The collection and storage of vehicle data, especially personal data such as vehicle positions or driving behavior, is subject to strict data protection regulations according to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG). Companies that use vehicle tracking must ensure that they comply with data protection regulations and only use the data for legitimate purposes. For example, if a logistics company uses GPS tracking to monitor its fleet of trucks, it may need to anonymize the driver data to ensure privacy. The location data will then only be used to optimize routes and delivery times.
ex:tracked provides mechanisms for anonymization or pseudonymization of personal data. This protects the privacy of vehicle users and can be achieved by encrypting sensitive data or aggregating data on a group level.
Consent and Duty to Inform
Before personal data such as vehicle location or driving behavior is collected, vehicle owners or users must be informed and their consent must be obtained. This is particularly important in the case of vehicles that are used for both business and private purposes. For example, a car-sharing company must clearly inform its customers that their use of the vehicle will be monitored by GPS tracking. Customers must explicitly agree to this monitoring before renting a vehicle.
We are happy to support you in implementing digital consent processes with the help of our workflow software ex:plore. The vehicle users are informed transparently about the data collection and their consent is obtained. This can be done through clear and understandable privacy statements, opt-in procedures and consent forms. In addition, only the data necessary for the intended purpose is collected and stored.
As you can see from this article, ex:tracked has a wide range of applications. A large number of different companies can benefit from its use: From insurance companies to fleet operators and mobility service providers. We are therefore looking forward to many more milestones in the further development of our ex:tracked software.
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