Beijing to Use Cell Phones to Track Citizens, Says It's No Big Deal
Beijing to Use Cell Phones to Track Citizens, Says It's No Big Deal
Posted 03/03/2011 at 3:47pm
| by Ryan Whitwam
6
Comments
Print
The Next Web is reporting today on a plan in Beijing for the Chinese government to institute a program of tracking the citizenry using their mobile phones. If you think you've figured out why they would do this, you'd apparently be wrong. Officials claim the “Platform for Citizen Movement Information” will be used to monitor traffic flow. Sounds completely reasonable, right?
Whenever one of Beijing's 17 million cell phone users switch on their device, its location as determined by the towers would be fed into a government database. Using dynamic analysis, the staffers will be able to track the flow of population distribution. At launch, the system will not be available for use by average people, but over time the intention is to offer personalized travel reports to commuters.
We don't deny that having real-time population flow could be useful for avoiding traffic jams, but there are plenty of opt-in location services to do this. It just seems a little too convenient that the government would get a huge mountain of location data on citizens'' movements.
More like this
6
Comments
Comments are closed on this article
praack
March 04, 2011 at 7:19am
Because there would be no need to capture details such as individual cell number or other identifying information for the police would there? not if you are just tracking flow of people
how this will work with this explanations is beyone me- it would mean that all cell phones would need to be on at all time- or could be traced at all time- so not really turned off only in sleep mode.
but of course a benevolent, open government like this would not use all this information for bad purposes. not one that arrests people just in case they might say something in protest....
praack
March 04, 2011 at 7:19am
Because there would be no need to capture details such as individual cell number or other identifying information for the police would there? not if you are just tracking flow of people
how this will work with this explanations is beyone me- it would mean that all cell phones would need to be on at all time- or could be traced at all time- so not really turned off only in sleep mode.
but of course a benevolent, open government like this would not use all this information for bad purposes. not one that arrests people just in case they might say something in protest....
Gezzer
March 03, 2011 at 7:25pm
What?!? Every one doubts China's integrity?
I mean does anyone doubt their claim to Tibet and Taiwan..... okay maybe a bad example.
But does anyone doubt their record on human rights.... okay bad one again.
Well I'm sure their aim is to use technology only when it enhances the lives of the citizenry.
Right? Right?
D00dlavy
March 03, 2011 at 5:39pm
China is cancerous. Their newfound prosperity makes me fearful that the rest of the world will start using Orwell’s novels as how-to manuals instead of cautionary tales.
Connect with MaximumPC
Featured Content
The gang discusses the GTX 690, Trinity, Ivy Bridge, Amazon, big-box stores, MMOs,...
This month's issue
Feature
Build a PC On Any Budget
Feature
Cloud Services Showdown
How-To
Encrypt Your External Drive
Build It
Upgrade an X58 Rig
Most Commented Articles
Latest Max PC Tweets
- maximumpc: Original RickRoll Video Returns to YouTube After 24-Hour Copyright Hiatus http://t.co/MaH9Sxyy19 hours 53 min ago
- maximumpc: Corsair has decided not to go forward with its $78 million IPO, citing weak equity market conditions http://t.co/A5a4DAzj20 hours 2 min ago
- maximumpc: Want to work at Maximum PC? Our Online Managing Editor, Alex, is moving away, so we need a new one. http://t.co/9Z7JCh0E2 days 17 hours ago
