Scientists study human movements through secret cell phone tracking
About 100,000 cell phone users in an undisclosed country didn't have a clue that their movements were being tracked over a six-month period for a study about human travel patterns. The new research has generated a wave of discussion about the privacy implications.
A team of scientists recently conducted a study of human travel patterns by secretly tracking the whereabouts of cell phone users.
Aiming to investigate the geographical patterns in which humans travel over time, the researchers studied the trajectory of 100,000 anonymized cell phone users -- randomly selected from more than 6 million users -- and tracked their locations over a six-month period via the calls and text messages they sent and received.
Also included for validation purposes were data that captured the location of 206 cell phone users every two hours for an entire week.
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