Moscow To Track Cell-phone Users In 2015 For Traffic Analysis

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Moscow To Track Cell-phone Users In 2015 For Traffic Analysis

Posted by timothy on Tuesday January 20, 2015 @03:12AM from the why-do-you-hate-freedom? dept.

An anonymous reader links to this story at The Stack (based on this translated report) that "The Moscow authorities will begin using the signal from Muscovites' cell-phones in 2015 to research patterns of traffic and points of congestion, with a view to changes in travel infrastructure including roads, the Moscow metro and bus services. The tracking, which appears to opt all users in unilaterally, promises not to identify individual cell-phone numbers, and will use GSM in most cases, but also GPS in more densely-constructed areas of the old city. The system is already in limited use on the roads, but will be extended to pedestrians and subway users in 2015. The city of 11.5 million people has three main cell providers, all of whom cooperate fully with authorities' request for information. A representative of one, Beeline, said: "We prepare reports that detail where our subscribers work, live, move, and other aspects."

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Wow ... by gstoddart · 2015-01-20 03:16 · Score: 4, Insightful

So, does this mean that Russia is finally catching up with the US in terms of monitoring its citizens?
The mind reels.
Papers please, comrade.

--
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
1. Re:Wow ... by Feral+Nerd · 2015-01-20 03:24 · Score: 0
  
  So, does this mean that Russia is finally catching up with the US in terms of monitoring its citizens?
  The mind reels.
  Papers please, comrade.
  In Putin's Russia the traffic watches YOU!
2. Re:Wow ... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-20 04:03 · Score: 0
  
  In the days of propiska (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propiska_in_the_Soviet_Union) - where you lived in state-assigned housing, Russia was doing this anyway. You couldn't legally move or even stay at someone else's residence without notifying the authorities.
  Russia has also required all citizens to have an internal passport since the Bolshevik revolution, and ZAGS was tracking all Russians before that.
3. Re:Wow ... by RingDev · 2015-01-20 04:05 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  They're beating us in this one.
  Current traffic monitoring systems use either CC video analysis, ramp meters, magnetic loop, or blue tooth detection. I've heard of systems to pick up tire pressure indicator signals also, but I haven't seen them first hand.
  With all of that, we get ~5-7% of the vehicle speed data on select routes.
  In 2017 new requirements go into effect to require all vehicles produced for use in the US to include V2V communications systems. Most of these systems also include V2I communications. Even if they don't, I'd expect detecting that a specific V2V entity just drove past is going to be trivial.
  So by the end of 2017, we're going to be on parity with all of our current assorted solutions for penetration. By the end of 2018, we'll have double the penetration. By 2020, roughly 20-25% of all vehicles will contain V2V and/or V2I communications.
  So what does that mean? It means we could generate optimum route data and re-route traffic based on travel time recommendations before they get onto a major road with limited access and a traffic issue on the desired route.
  It also means we can identify true bottlenecks and take completely new approaches to road engineering and project prioritization. This alone is a multi-billion dollar a year industry, funded largely by tax payers. If we can find more efficient ways of taking on these projects, it means less expenditures (or more projects).
  But it comes with down sides. A policing agency could in theory query the system to see where you currently are, or where your vehicle was at a specific time. It also makes it possible for the mile traveled road tax, where you can be taxed by mile driven, and those taxes can vary and be distributed by municipalities that own those roads. And of course there is a security concern that a hacker or malicious user could determine your driving habits and use the information to their advantage. I did even hear a member of the law enforcement community asking about such a system's ability to disable vehicles remotely in the case of excessive speed, chases, etc...
  Basically, there's a huge shift coming in the US and how we (and the government) interact with our vehicles.
  -Rick
  
  --
  "Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
4. Re:Wow ... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-20 04:29 · Score: 0
  
  The government is the malicious agent.
  It is a feminist police state.
  "Basically, there's a huge shift coming in the US and how we (and the government) interact with our vehicles."
  How about a violent revolution and all that crap going to dust?
5. Re:Wow ... by geekmux · 2015-01-20 04:31 · Score: 0
  
  So, does this mean that Russia is finally catching up with the US in terms of monitoring its citizens?
  The mind reels.
  Papers please, comrade.
  The only thing reeling in my mind is the ability for others to believe this type of monitoring hasn't been going on already.
  For years.
  This is Russia we're talking about. Control isn't just a fancy word thrown around at dinner parties at the Kremlin.
6. Re:Wow ... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-20 05:13 · Score: 1
  
  Google does it: no Problem
  Russia does it: OMG SURVEILLANCE STATE
7. Re:Wow ... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-20 07:08 · Score: 0
  
  Papers please, comrade.
  No need for papers anymore. Everyone is carrying their trackable identity with them on a voluntary basis.
  I think you mean:
  Phone please, comrade.
  Dimitry, why is this phone registered to John Smith and not you?
  Here is your train ticket to Siberia.
8. Re:Wow ... by Solandri · 2015-01-20 07:08 · Score: 2
  
  They're beating us in this one.
  
  Current traffic monitoring systems use either CC video analysis, ramp meters, magnetic loop, or blue tooth detection. I've heard of systems to pick up tire pressure indicator signals also, but I haven't seen them first hand.
  Er, no. I was playing around with the traffic feature in Google Maps (which shows you how bad traffic congestion is). I had always assumed they were getting their data from CalTrans cameras along the freeways or something. But then I zoomed in and noticed they had traffic info for the major streets. I zoomed in some more and I noticed it showed traffic levels for the street in front of my house, where I know there aren't any cameras or magnetic loop road sensors.
  
  That's when it hit me. Google is using the GPS-measured movements of people in cars with Android phones in their pockets to generate real-time traffic maps. That's what it means when you click OK to sending anonymized location info from your phone back to Google. (Apple did a similar thing to generate their geographical wifi hotspot map as a backup for GPS. Google actually did that The Right Way - by sending employee-driven cars all around the world recording wifi network SSIDs (and a little else by accident), and the EU crucified them for it. Apple did it by pulling GPS and wifi data from private individuals' iPhones, and no regulatory agency raised a fuss about it.)
9. Re:Wow ... by RingDev · 2015-01-20 07:20 · Score: 1
  
  Sorry, I should specify that the -government- is currently monitoring traffic via those methods.
  Private industry has access to things that elements of the government does not, like your cell phone's position and speed (assuming you have Google's positioning system enabled).
  Now, the NSA/FBI/Police may have some way of hacking in to get that, or put up stingers to catch it, but for all of the state DOTs out there, individuals' cell phones are not available. And the systems we have available to measure traffic volume, speed, and primary routes are limited.
  -Rick
  
  --
  "Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
10. Re:Wow ... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-20 08:54 · Score: 0
  
  Actually, where do people think those red/yellow/green traffic lines on their apps come from?
  See: http://www.inrix.com/products/
  It's also used for urban planning.
11. Re:Wow ... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-20 09:28 · Score: 0
  
  I'm sorry, but in 2007 Tomtom added this to their traffic analisys in the NL (using Vodafone). See http://webwereld.nl/e-commerce/35937-tomtom-baseert-filegegevens-op-lokatie-vodafone-abonnees (Dutch).
12. Re:Wow ... by peted56 · 2015-01-20 09:44 · Score: 1
  
  Who in their right mind ever does this though.......... reap what you sow I guess.
13. Re:Wow ... by peted56 · 2015-01-20 09:45 · Score: 1
  
  Yes but Google are the good guys........ right?
So turn off your phone by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-20 03:18 · Score: 0

Why does your phone have to be on all the time anyway?
1. Re:So turn off your phone by sribe · 2015-01-20 03:21 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Why does your phone have to be on all the time anyway?
  Uhm, in order to receive calls???
2. Re:So turn off your phone by Algan · 2015-01-20 03:31 · Score: 1
  
  Uhm, in order to receive calls???
  Such an antiquated concept...
  
  --
  If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
3. Re:So turn off your phone by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-20 03:42 · Score: 0
  
  I think the point was if you need to be able to receive calls at all times. I don't. Especially when I know that whenever my phone is on, I am being tracked. Why don't they just mandate ankle monitors for all citizens anyway?
4. Re:So turn off your phone by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-20 03:43 · Score: 0
  
  Why? Since when was it required by law that I must have my phone in a state that anyone can call me AND I MUST ANSWER THEM?
  I have a cell phone, and it is turned off 95% of the time. I turn it on when I need to make a call, it has a message service if someone needs to let me know something.
  I don't understand this need to be contactable 24 hours a day as if life itself depends on it.
  I grew up without a cell phone and did not die, I own a cell phone and turn it off and still I am alive. Why do most people feel the need to have a contact 24 hours a day? Are they that scared to just think for themselves.
5. Re:So turn off your phone by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-20 03:44 · Score: 0
  
  I turn mine off when I drive. Always have.
  Can't use or carry cell phones at work, so no issue there.
6. Re:So turn off your phone by sribe · 2015-01-20 03:49 · Score: 1
  
  Such an antiquated concept...
  True. I should have written "Uhm, in order to receive SnapChats?" ;-)
7. Re:So turn off your phone by jbwolfe · 2015-01-20 04:07 · Score: 1
  
  I don't seem to be struck with an inability to not answer a ringing phone or not respond to the chime of a text message. I just leave the phone on and ignore it. Always have.
  (If the phone was off, there would be no music coming from the stereo. Did you mean "airplane mode"?)
  
  --
  Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?
8. Re:So turn off your phone by geekmux · 2015-01-20 04:37 · Score: 1
  
  I think the point was if you need to be able to receive calls at all times. I don't. Especially when I know that whenever my phone is on, I am being tracked. Why don't they just mandate ankle monitors for all citizens anyway?
  Given how hard a US citizen would be scrutinized if they chose to not ever carry a cell phone or have an email address, I'd say it IS pretty much mandated. You'll likely end up with your own FBI file otherwise.
  However, that being said, I don't see the purpose of you even owning a phone if you're concerned about being tracked. It's going to become more and more impossible (or illegal) to own a dumb phone anymore, so even powering on a smartphone to make a call will likely result in a mass data dump from your phone to the various providers of crapware installed under the 172 EULAs you auto-agreed to when you broke the shrink-wrap.
9. Re:So turn off your phone by laurencetux · 2015-01-20 04:47 · Score: 1
  
  its the rest of the folks that are wacko
  for some folks if they can't contact you RIGHT THIS MOMENT they assume you are "dead in a ditch" somewhere.
  I have a rule that if you are not on the following list i will not answer the phone
  1 Did you give birth to me?
  2 Do you currently employ me?
  3 are you otherwise going to be giving me some sort of resource?
  4 picking me up for something?
  5 treating me for something?
  6 arranging some sort of service?
  the funny thing is most of those folks actually contact me by other means anyway.
10. Re:So turn off your phone by geekmux · 2015-01-20 04:50 · Score: 1
  
  Why? Since when was it required by law that I must have my phone in a state that anyone can call me AND I MUST ANSWER THEM?
  I have a cell phone, and it is turned off 95% of the time. I turn it on when I need to make a call, it has a message service if someone needs to let me know something.
  I don't understand this need to be contactable 24 hours a day as if life itself depends on it.
  I grew up without a cell phone and did not die, I own a cell phone and turn it off and still I am alive. Why do most people feel the need to have a contact 24 hours a day? Are they that scared to just think for themselves.
  Given the general "geek" feel on this particular forum, surely you must understand that your position on this is a rather foreign concept to those who livelihood might in fact depend on them being connected 24 hours a day. And quite often it has nothing to do with thinking for themselves. (I blame a shitty attitude towards work/life balance, and an overall sickening addiction to build monitoring devices for every damn thing in the universe, as if your fridge really needs it's own Twitter handle)
  Feel fortunate you are not one of them, but I would question why you even own a cell phone. Or email address. Or Internet service. The overall paranoia around being tracked physically, well you might as well just learn to accept that shit. If it's not a cell phone today it's going to be a drone tomorrow. Understand and accept the fact that thanks to the "War on Terror", the monitoring of human movements will be all but mandatory.
  And yeah, I remember a life well before internet, cell phones, and "social" media. Shit happens. Things change.
11. Re:So turn off your phone by PPH · 2015-01-20 04:55 · Score: 1
  
  I don't understand this need to be contactable 24 hours a day as if life itself depends on it.
  If you need me, you can contact my staff. If it's important, they'll put the call through or forward the message. People who are 'always on' tend to be lower on the social or organizational totem pole. People who will catch hell if they don't pick up NOW.
  
  --
  Have gnu, will travel.
12. Re:So turn off your phone by dablow · 2015-01-20 05:08 · Score: 1
  
  It's being tracked even if it is off. Only way to NOT be tracked is to remove the battery.
13. Re:So turn off your phone by Dragonslicer · 2015-01-20 05:52 · Score: 1
  
  If you need me, you can contact my staff. If it's important, they'll put the call through or forward the message. People who are 'always on' tend to be lower on the social or organizational totem pole. People who will catch hell if they don't pick up NOW.
  You have personal staff that your family members are supposed to call if they need to talk to you? I think it's a pretty safe assumption that the vast majority of people are not as rich as you are.
14. Re:So turn off your phone by reikae · 2015-01-20 05:53 · Score: 1
  
  It's going to become more and more impossible (or illegal) to own a dumb phone anymore
  What do you mean? How will owning a dumbphone tomorrow be any harder or more impossible/illegal than it was yesterday?
15. Re:So turn off your phone by geekmux · 2015-01-20 06:37 · Score: 1
  
  It's going to become more and more impossible (or illegal) to own a dumb phone anymore
  What do you mean? How will owning a dumbphone tomorrow be any harder or more impossible/illegal than it was yesterday?
  Have you visited a phone store lately?
  Finding a true dumbphone these days is about as easy as finding sports shoes without looking like a neon smurf puked all over them. Offerings have changed just a bit, and even my parents cheap-ass pre-paid phone is a smartphone.
  As providers realize the potential revenue streams related to smartphones, the option of even offering a dumbphone option becomes more foreign to every provider.
16. Re:So turn off your phone by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-20 06:47 · Score: 0
  
  Strawman arguments are lies.
17. Re:So turn off your phone by spacec0w · 2015-01-20 06:55 · Score: 2
  
  In other words, you don't have much of a social life.
18. Re:So turn off your phone by peted56 · 2015-01-20 09:48 · Score: 1
  
  Of course you can get basic phones, that is exactly what one of my sight impaired kids uses, smartphones are of no use to him.
19. Re:So turn off your phone by peted56 · 2015-01-20 09:48 · Score: 1
  
  Link, proof? I call BS on this.
20. Re:So turn off your phone by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-20 19:58 · Score: 0
  
  Erm, what? Sure, most people I know own smartphones and have data plans, but I certainly know people who own dumbphones and don't have data plans. I even know at least one person who does not own a phone at all. It may be rare, but it isn't unheard of.
Weird . . . by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-20 03:31 · Score: 0

. . . each and every cellphone is already tracked - or it wouldn't be possible to call them at all.
So they wouldn't need to "track" them in any new way. Just extract the existing tracking data from the phone company/companies.
And how are they supposed to "use GPS" ? A GPS receiver may be a common feature on high-end smartphones, but a phone is certainly not required to have one - or have it turned on. It is usually off to save battery anyway.
Re:In Czarist Moscow by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-20 03:40 · Score: 0

In Putin Russia, government opts you in unilaterally.
Seriously, what kind of newspeak is this? "The tracking, which appears to opt all users in unilaterally"
GPS? Really? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-20 03:49 · Score: 0

Are they talking about massively tapping into citizens phones, turning GPS on without their consent and knowledge, waiting to get a fix, and making the phone transmit the position to them? If so, then that is very interesting indeed!
1. Re:GPS? Really? by Stewie241 · 2015-01-20 04:00 · Score: 1
  
  I had wondered if it was supposed to be GRPS, and somebody didn't know what that was and shortened it to GPS assuming it must be a typo or something.
2. Re:GPS? Really? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-20 04:26 · Score: 0
  
  The original article says "The system will be augmented by GPS data in particularly dense and labyrinthine areas, such as ‘old Moscow’"; I have no idea how GPRS would help here.
  One additional piece of information is provided in the article in Russian, that the original article cites. It mentions GPS and GLONASS, so I doubt it's a typo.
In Soviet Russia, traffic gets stuck in you! by JoeyRox · 2015-01-20 03:50 · Score: 1

Obligatory Yakov Smirnoff reference.
I am OK with this by houghi · 2015-01-20 03:52 · Score: 1

Seriously. I am OK that they are using data for this.
At this moment there is no opt-out, besides not having a cellphone, so why not use it for something else.
That does not mean I agree with the spying.

--
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Seems a rather weak excuse by Bearhouse · 2015-01-20 03:55 · Score: 1

Yes, gathering anonymous data, (good luck with that) can be a very helpful and cheap way of gathering real-time data on traffic flows. However, as anyone who spent some time in Moscow can attest, the traffic is basically in gridlock everywhere most of the time, with the worst pinch points being damn obvious to anyone...
Re:In Czarist Moscow by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-20 03:59 · Score: 0

It means you don't have a fucking choice.
US Traffic Analysis by colordotmatrix · 2015-01-20 04:05 · Score: 0

NSA Analyst: "See, I told you we should have said that we're tracking cell phones for traffic analysis!!!!"
NSA Boss: "Yeah, it sounds so much better, after the fact...."
I don't have a problem with it ... by CaptainDork · 2015-01-20 04:20 · Score: 1

... Russia can do whatever it wants to do.

--
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Re:In Czarist Moscow by clam666 · 2015-01-20 04:36 · Score: 1

>all of whom cooperate fully with authorities' request for information.
You want what? Hahahahahaha. *chambers round* Uhhh...sure. No problem. Here ya go.

--
I'm a satanic clam.
This is a shame, really by Overzeetop · 2015-01-20 04:42 · Score: 1

A shame that we fully expect this data to be used to track us personally (because, let's face it, it probably will). This kind of data would be a huge value to civil engineers and planners who design the roads and target maintenance, improvements, and new routes. It would cost in the tens of millions of dollars to collect just a fraction of this using traditional methods, and yet the data could be had for less than a 1/10 of that and be far, far more complete.

--
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
NSA says .... by PPH · 2015-01-20 05:00 · Score: 2

... weclome to the club.

--
Have gnu, will travel.
Okay, then, move out of Moscow by unixisc · 2015-01-20 05:00 · Score: 1

Seriously, any Muscovites having problems w/ this and suspecting it to be anything other than traffic analysis, move. You could get really far from Putin by relocating to places like Vladivostok, Krasnoyarsk, Magadan, et al. Which may take a while to get that traffic analysis. Not to mention - all the problems that Moscow is famous for - you get to leave that behind
After all, it's not like your country is short on real estate: if anything, Siberia is badly underpopulated. So move there, and you'd probably find prices a fraction of what it is in Moscow.
1. Re:Okay, then, move out of Moscow by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-20 07:05 · Score: 1
  
  I don't really see anyone complaining.
  
  A big difference between Russia and the US is that people in the US expect the government to respect their privacy and then act righteously outraged when it turns out the government spies on them, but in Russia everyone expects the government to spy on them so they don't really get upset when the government says that they do just that.
Looks like a hadoop use case. by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-20 05:17 · Score: 0

CDH5 administrator here. Where do I send my resume? Is Russian language required?
TomTom Traffic? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-20 05:38 · Score: 0

Isn't this the same thing that Vodaphone supply to TomTom for live traffic?
Waze by Webs+101 · 2015-01-20 05:38 · Score: 1

This is pretty much just a mandatory opt-in to Waze. It's exactly what Waze does to route you.

--
"Even for Slashdot, that was a very obscure reference!" - Anonymous Coward
Re:In Czarist Moscow by AchilleTalon · 2015-01-20 05:45 · Score: 0

Left Putin alone! The idea is from Snowden.

--
Achille Talon
Hop!
Re:In Czarist Moscow by AchilleTalon · 2015-01-20 05:47 · Score: 1

Leave indeed.

--
Achille Talon
Hop!
Adding traffic analysis by CanadianMacFan · 2015-01-20 07:31 · Score: 1

We've been tracking your cell phones for years now but we're going to start using the data for traffic analysis this year.
Google Maps called by davidwr · 2015-01-20 07:41 · Score: 1

They want their near-real-time traffic-congestion reports back.

--
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Yeah, riiiiiiight... by superdave80 · 2015-01-20 09:03 · Score: 0

"Traffic Analysis" wink, wink.
In Soviet Moscow by frovingslosh · 2015-01-20 09:06 · Score: 1

In Soviet Moscow the police track YOU!
just like they do here.

--
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.