"Cell phone users secretly tracked in study"

[[R-MOD]Saobh]

Interesting little study which is probably going to raise a lot of other issues
And a nice reminder of how its rules rather then means that keep the fine line of personal privacy from being crossed.

Researchers secretly tracked the locations of 100,000 people outside the United States through their cell phone use and concluded that most people rarely stray more than a few miles from home.

The study found that nearly half of the people tracked kept to a circle little more than six miles wide.

The first-of-its-kind study by Northeastern University raises privacy and ethical questions for its monitoring methods, which would be illegal in the United States.

It also yielded somewhat surprising results that reveal how little people move around in their daily lives. Nearly three-quarters of those studied mainly stayed within a 20-mile-wide circle for half a year.

The scientists would not disclose where the study was done, only describing the location as an industrialized nation.

Researchers used cell phone towers to track individuals' locations whenever they made or received phone calls and text messages over six months.

In a second set of records, researchers took another 206 cell phones that had tracking devices in them and got records for their locations every two hours over a week's time period.

The study was based on cell phone records from a private company, whose name also was not disclosed.

Study co-author Cesar Hidalgo, a physics researcher at Northeastern, said he and his colleagues didn't know the individual phone numbers because they were disguised into "ugly" 26-digit-and-letter codes.

That type of nonconsensual tracking would be illegal in the United States, according to Rob Kenny, a spokesman for the Federal Communications Commission. Consensual tracking, however, is legal and even marketed as a special feature by some U.S. cell phone providers.

The study, published Thursday in the journal Nature, opens up the field of human-tracking for science and calls attention to what experts said is an emerging issue of locational privacy.

"This is a new step for science," said study co-author Albert-Lazlo Barabasi, director of Northeastern's Center for Complex Network Research. "For the first time we have a chance to really objectively follow certain aspects of human behavior."

Barabasi said he spent nearly half his time on the study worrying about privacy issues. Researchers didn't know which phone numbers were involved. They were not able to say precisely where people were, just which nearby cell phone tower was relaying the calls, which could be a matter of blocks or miles.

They started with 6 million phone numbers and chose the 100,000 at random to provide "an extra layer" of anonymity for the research subjects, he said.

Barabasi said he did not check with any ethics panel. Had he done so, he might have gotten an earful, suggested bioethicist Arthur Caplan at the University of Pennsylvania.

"There is plenty going on here that sets off ethical alarm bells about privacy and trustworthiness," Caplan said.

Studies done on normal behavior at public places is "fair game for researchers" as long as no one can figure out identities, Caplan said in an e-mail.

"So if I fight at a soccer match or walk through 30th Street train station in Philly, I can be studied," Caplan wrote. "But my cell phone is not public. My cell phone is personal. Tracking it and thus its owner is an active intrusion into personal privacy."

Paul Stephens, policy director at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego, said the nonconsensual part of the study raises the Big Brother issue.

"It certainly is a major concern for people who basically don't like to be tracked and shouldn't be tracked without their knowledge," Stephens said.

Study co-author Hidalgo said there is a difference between being a statistic -- such as how many people buy a certain brand of computer -- and a specific example. The people tracked in the study are more statistics than examples.

"In the wrong hands the data could be misused," Hidalgo said. "But in scientists' hands you're trying to look at broad patterns.... We're not trying to do evil things. We're trying to make the world a little better."

Knowing people's travel patterns can help design better transportation systems and give doctors guidance in fighting the spread of contagious diseases, he said.

The results also tell us something new about ourselves, including that we tend to go to the same places repeatedly, he said.

"Despite the fact that we think of ourselves as spontaneous and unpredictable ... we do have our patterns we move along and for the vast majority of people it's a short distance," Barabasi said.

The study found that nearly half of the people in the study pretty much keep to a circle little more than six miles wide and that 83 percent of the people tracked mostly stay within a 37-mile wide circle.

But then there are the people who are the travel equivalent of the super-rich, said Hidalgo, who travels more than 150 miles every weekend to visit his girlfriend. Nearly 3 percent of the population regularly go beyond a 200-mile wide circle. Less than 1 percent of people travel often out of a 621-mile circle.

But most people like to stay much closer to home. Hidalgo said he understands why: "There's a lot of people who don't like hectic lives. Travel is such a hassle."

Source:
- Cell phone users secretly tracked in study - CNN.com

[PFunk]

Comparing the use of public observation and a private device such as a cell phone is definitely different. Since it is a private contract with a company them giving away even anonymous statistics about me is wrong. All studies that involve private behavior has to be consensual. Besides it could set a precedent. The more companies feel comfortable sharing this the more the government could feel comfortable pressing them for it.

I remember seeing a documentary on the NSA where former employees of AT&T (if I recall correctly) witnessed the construction and the use of a special room inside of AT&T buildings where NSA members were admitted and allowed unfiltered access to raw internet information. So basically anything anyone was doing through that ISP was available to the NSA. No court orders, no review, no individual warrants for monitoring, just unlimited observation of anyone that had internet with that company routed through that server cluster. Thats information so confidential that people who work right next to the room weren't allowed in or had similar access.

Since this technology is changing so much and is still a very new frontier of human development I think that we ought to really play it safe and conservative when it comes to this kind of privacy since the precedents we set today will affect how we draft newer laws about it tomorrow. And our attitudes are even more important. If we become accustomed to the government sifting through our private behavior then we'll be less reactive to subtle and quiet attempts to slide the scale in favour of less privacy.

As for the study itself I think that people don't stray too far cause we work usually with in about 6 miles of home. And when I leave my area code I'm not usually making calls on that phone.

[SiN|ScarFace]

I think most if not all modern cell phones are gps equipped, why? In case you drive off a cliff or get lost of course. (sarcasm) So your privacy is already gone, thats the choice you make by owning a cell phone. The only thing this study does it to tell you/show you that your movement can easily be tracked, usually people are oblivious to this fact and ignorance is bliss. Many police departments in the USA are tied into the cell phone networks and can find your current location on a map. Cell phones just like a computer on a network that is turned off can be turned on by remote, unless you pull the battery.

Maybe if more people realized they can be tracked by their phone they would do something about it, but people really don't care about their privacy or the principal of it anymore.

That NSA splitter thing isn't just in AT&T data centers, it's in most if not all provider data centers, which is another reason why they want retro active immunity for phone companies and the administration on wire tapping.

[ArmedDrunk&Angry]

Welcome to the future.
Do you need a grief counselor or will a box of tissues do ?

[Defiyur]

Originally Posted by ArmedDrunk&Angry

Welcome to the future.
Do you need a grief counselor or will a box of tissues do ?

Do you know that you can be listened to in your home (or any building) talking? Yep. They have special directional type spy mics and also I've heard of lazers which amplify acoustical sounds as well. Don't worry though as long as you are a 'good citizen' you don't have to worry. Total control society. Maybe one day I can get that brainwave "streamliner" I've always wanted so impure thoughts can be "deleted" or prevented in the first place. Where can I buy some 3ft by 5ft posters of Stalin to hang on my walls? Yes I'm being melodramatic but this is how things start. If you cook a frog slowly he will die in the pot...if you throw him directly into boiling water he will realize what's happening and try to escape. Humans are STUPID STUPID creatures. For all our ability to invent our capacity to understand our nature is pathetic.

[Harrod200]

Originally Posted by Defiyur

Do you know that you can be listened to in your home (or any building) talking? Yep. They have special directional type spy mics and also I've heard of lazers which amplify acoustical sounds as well. Don't worry though as long as you are a 'good citizen' you don't have to worry. Total control society. Maybe one day I can get that brainwave "streamliner" I've always wanted so impure thoughts can be "deleted" or prevented in the first place. Where can I buy some 3ft by 5ft posters of Stalin to hang on my walls? Yes I'm being melodramatic but this is how things start. If you cook a frog slowly he will die in the pot...if you throw him directly into boiling water he will realize what's happening and try to escape. Humans are STUPID STUPID creatures. For all our ability to invent our capacity to understand our nature is pathetic.

'They' don't just have directional mics...I have one...

Frankly, I couldn't care less if people know where I am all the time. I do nothing I should be afraid of letting the authorities know about; as long as they don't interfere in my life, they can know what they damned well like about me.

[SiN|ScarFace]

Originally Posted by Harrod200

'They' don't just have directional mics...I have one...

Frankly, I couldn't care less if people know where I am all the time. I do nothing I should be afraid of letting the authorities know about; as long as they don't interfere in my life, they can know what they damned well like about me.

You might care if 'they' was your land lord and was watching your wife/Gf/Daughter in their home, unknown to them, because 'they' can, But that is only if you know 'they' are doing it, ignorance is bliss.

[PFunk]

Originally Posted by Harrod200

I couldn't care less if people know where I am all the time. I do nothing I should be afraid of letting the authorities know about; as long as they don't interfere in my life, they can know what they damned well like about me.

Thats the oldest desperate belief; as long as you're clean and innocent nobody will play patty cake with you.






Edit: please watch your language, this forum is also accessible to younger users. Thanks you.

[Harrod200]

Originally Posted by PFunk

Thats the oldest desperate belief; as long as you're clean and innocent nobody will fuck with you.

Ahh, this is where documentation comes into play. Someone tries to fuck with me, I have documentation of where I am 24/7.

[ArmedDrunk&Angry]

Put a simple window fan in and the vibration will make laser eavesdropping impossible.
Unless they have the ability to screen out that vibration, in which case you are being surveilled by top notch people and you are in deep excrement.
So lean a cheap radio on the window.
Then they can't hear you, especially if you keep scanning different channels.

The tech has the potential for abuse, but so what doesn't ?

If you rock the boat too much you will get thrown overboard, nothing original about that.