Telcos Waking Up To the Value of Your Location

holy_calamity writes "Cell phone networks represent probably the most effective data collectors of all time: almost everyone's movements and communications are logged in some way by these firms thanks to the ubiquity of cell phones. Now they're beginning to wake up to the value of that data, as researchers mine call records to study travel and social patterns at previously unimaginable scales. Not surprisingly, some are thinking about how to monetize that data, too."

Comments

cell phones are going to replace everything

[circletimessquare]

your wallet, cash and credit cards: just swipe your cellphone

your house keys: just swipe your cellphone

your computer: the latest generation of cellphones rival desktops or laptops from 5 years ago, and surpass them in terms of functionality

your gps, your toll booth tag, your subway card, your taxes... everything

kids will get them when they enter kindergarten (and parents will watch their location). you'll carry a cellphone from cradle to grave, and won't be able to live in civilization without one

you practically won't even know your own name without a cellphone, or be able to organize your life, or be able to function in society

the problem is that this makes the cell phone absolutely essential, and therefore the privacy concerns will butt heads with the cellphone's unrivaled functionality, and so most people won't even blink

the only protection from this is a legal framework. no technological solution can exist: you're either on the network, or you're not. and if you are on the network, they control the entry to the network, they set the terms about what device you use, and therefore they own you

i suppose some wifi only concept will exist, but its functionality will be greatly reduced, and the networks will ensure that free wifi won't threaten their dominance

some sort of competition between providers will help keep them honest, so we don't want the world to be swallowed by verizon. but of course the government will be able to snoop on everything, and so, as i said before, only legal limitations on the government's power can possibly curtail this (and even then, they'll snoop with provisions for "reasonable" suspicion or "terrorist related" activity)

inevitable conclusion: the cell phone will kill the concept of privacy in modern society, and functioning in modern society will be impossible without a cellphone

ugly