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Wealth In Africa Mapped Using Mobile Phone Data
KentuckyFC writes "The remarkable growth of mobile phone use is transforming many parts of Africa. In Sudan and Gabon, more than half of all adults use their phones to transfer money, the activist website Ushahidi used text messages to map post-election violence in Kenya in 2008 and in Nigeria, mobile music services are a multi-million dollar industry. Now demographers have used the way people purchase airtime to map wealth in Cote d'Ivoire on Africa's west coast. They analysed a dataset from one of the country's largest mobile operators containing caller IDs, the cell towers used for each call and the time and amount of all airtime purchases. The researchers say an individual's airtime buying habits are a good proxy for his or her income. As a result, they were able to to map wealth across the entire country. Their map clearly shows the wealthy cities such as Abidjan, the largest seaport in West Africa. But it also shows an unexpectedly wealthy region in the conflict-ridden area that borders Liberia. This wealth probably arises from illegal activities on the border, such as drug, arms and human trafficking, they conclude."
To be told that something works by an academic is nice, but it is hardly satisfying. Without the data, rigor, or representation, we have no pragmatic way to see how useful this actually is.
Anyone who owns a mobile phone.
Would be nice to have an article linked correctly... https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/716ca39266c9
Perhaps there is simply a very high need for airtime in certain regions that has nothing to do with wealth. If a farmer is nearly bankrupt but pays for new, expensive farming equipment (perhaps even taking on a huge debt) it doesn't mean he is wealthy. He's broke. The expenditure is just something needed it to keep his business going.
Before someone flames me for not RTFA, I got a 404 error when I followed the link.
...The researchers say an individual's airtime buying habits are a good proxy for his or her income....
They can also be a good proxy for corruption, if bribery or fraud can get you airtime...
or for hacking, if the local provider is incompetent.....
Looking at the map, particularly the second one showing the "coefficient of variation" I can't help but notice that not all of the hot spots are on the boarder, but, they do all seem to be associated with rivers. River crossing on the interior and where rivers move close to borders on the exterior.
Basically wealth is concentrated in unsurprising places along where you would expect to find trade routes. Why connect this with illegal activity aside from being more attention grabbing? I mean I don't doubt some of the wealth there is from illegal activity but, just because legitimate trade routes get used for illicit activity for rather mundane reasons (its where the money is)
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
"Secret" 3G Intel Chip Gives Snoops Backdoor PC Access
vPro processors allow remote access even when computer is turned off
Paul Joseph Watson | Infowars.com | September 26, 2013
http://www.infowars.com/91497/
Intel Core vPro processors contain a "secret" 3G chip that allows remote disabling and backdoor access to any computer even when it is turned off.
Although the technology has actually been around for a while, the attendant privacy concerns are only just being aired. The "secret" 3G chip that Intel added to its processors in 2011 caused little consternation until the NSA spying issue exploded earlier this year as a result of Edward Snowden's revelations.
In a promotional video for the technology, Intel brags that the chips actually offer enhanced security because they don't require computers to be "powered on" and allow problems to be fixed remotely. The promo also highlights the ability for an administrator to shut down PCs remotely "even if the PC is not connected to the network," as well as the ability to bypass hard drive encryption.
"Intel actually embedded the 3G radio chip in order to enable its Anti Theft 3.0 technology. And since that technology is found on every Core i3/i5/i7 CPU after Sandy Bridge, that means a lot of CPUs, not just new vPro, might have a secret 3G connection nobody knew about until now,"reports Softpedia.
Jeff Marek, director of business client engineering for Intel, acknowledged that the company's Sandy Bridge" microprocessor, which was released in 2011, had "the ability to remotely kill and restore a lost or stolen PC via 3G."
"Core vPro processors contain a second physical processor embedded within the main processor which has it's own operating system embedded on the chip itself," writes Jim Stone. "As long as the power supply is available and and in working condition, it can be woken up by the Core vPro processor, which runs on the system's phantom power and is able to quietly turn individual hardware components on and access anything on them."
Although the technology is being promoted as a convenient way for IT experts to troubleshoot PC issues remotely, it also allows hackers or NSA snoops to view the entire contents of somebody's hard drive, even when the power is off and the computer is not connected to a wi-fi network.
It also allows third parties to remotely disable any computer via the "secret" 3G chip that is built into Intel's Sandy Bridge processors. Webcams could also be remotely accessed.
"This combination of hardware from Intel enables vPro access ports which operate independently of normal user operations," reports TG Daily. "These include out-of-band communications (communications that exist outside of the scope of anything the machine might be doing through an OS or hypervisor), monitoring and altering of incoming and outgoing network traffic. In short, it operates covertly and snoops and potentially manipulates data."
Not only does this represent a privacy nightmare, it also dramatically increases the risk of industrial espionage.
The ability for third parties to have remote 3G access to PCs would also allow unwanted content to be placed on somebody's hard drive, making it easier for intelligence agencies and corrupt law enforcement bodies to frame people.
"The bottom line? The Core vPro processor is the end of any pretend privacy," writes Stone. "If you think encryption, Norton, or anything else is going to ensure your privacy, including never hooking up to the web at all, think again. There is now more than just a ghost in the machine."
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http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/enterprise-security/
They're gone Mac going to continue, bulk of the FreeBSD guys are usually All# major marketing
Because that's the real wealth, the rest is illusion.
Wealth cant be accumulated via legal means and we just have to assume it was due to illegal means by default if you become wealthy?
F-ing liberal
---- Booth was a patriot ----
If this correlation of phone spending to income holds for the first world, how long before a department like the IRS uses this kind of meta data to flag potential tax evaders.
neorush
Even though a structured settlement may stipulate that the annuity cannot be sold, don’t assume that door is closed. Start making inquiries with a reputable annuity sale company to walk you through the details of overcoming what appears to be a solid, immovable contract.
How many times does it have to be said? War is good business, and presents many opportunities. The markets are always freest when the authorities are occupied with other matters. The same was true in the US during its war for 'independence'.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
War is fantastic for promoting sexual slavery, to give just one example. Dick Cheney approves!
Reading slashdot while on holiday.
(I was there last year, don't know if this dataset includes me)
Watch this Heartland Institute video
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