Mobile phones expose human habits

[Steve Gardner]

Anyone spotting a trend yet?

Not only are we in the UK caught on camera more frequently than the citizens of any other society, we could be on the verge of having our every movement tracked, enabling our whereabouts to be known even when we're off-camera.

Notice how this university study comes on the heels of another university study into the possible beneficial effects of a drug that will make you trust someone who has already betrayed you!

Are universities now openly actively engaged in developing and testing the means to destory our freedoms?

Source and full article: BBC

The whereabouts of more than 100,000 mobile phone users have been tracked in an attempt to build a comprehensive picture of human movements.

The study concludes that humans are creatures of habit, mostly visiting the same few spots time and time again.

Most people also move less than 10km on a regular basis, according to the study published in the journal Nature.

The results could be used to help prevent outbreaks of disease or forecast traffic, the scientists said.

"It would be wonderful if every [mobile] carrier could give universities access to their data because it's so rich," said Dr Marta Gonzalez of Northeastern University, Boston, US, and one of the authors of the paper.

Dr William Webb, head of research and development at the UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, agreed that mobile phone data was still underexploited.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg," he told BBC News.

[Steve Gardner]

I posted this in another forum and, whilst there were some who found the concept disturbing, the ususal suspects defended it, arguing that the experiement as described was harmless and could serve a beneficial purpose. Of course, the obligatory, "what does it matter if you've got nothing to hide" also reared its ugly head.

When I read about these sorts of things my thoughts develop in two ways that differ fundamentally from these people.

Firstly, the experiment demonstrates a capability far beyond that actually described. Secondly, I don't view that capability in isolation. I view it as part of a range of capabilities that, when deployed collectively, amount to a rather effective and wide-ranging invasion on our privacy.