Originally published December 3 2005
Debate develops over use of cell phone tracking for traffic information
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Several states, including Virginia and Maryland, are trying out technologies that track cell phone signals to map accurate traffic information, but national privacy groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation are alarmed by the potential abuse of the technology by government officials.
Several state transportation agencies, including those in Maryland and Virginia, are beginning to test technology that allows them to monitor traffic by tracking cellphone signals and mapping them against road grids.
The technology highlights how readily cellphones can become tracking devices for companies or government agencies - a development that troubles privacy advocates.
The phones need only be turned on, not in use.
And sophisticated software now makes it possible to discern whether a signal is coming from, say, a moving car or a pedestrian.
State officials say the systems will monitor large clusters of phones, not individual phones, and the benefits could be substantial.
By providing a constantly updated picture of traffic flow across thousands of miles of highways, they argue, cellphone tracking can help transportation agencies spot congestion and divert drivers by issuing alerts by radio or on electronic road signs.
Next month, Maryland, with the help of the University of Baltimore, plans to begin tests for a cellular tracking system in the Baltimore area.
"The potential is incredible," said Phil Tarnoff, director of the Center for Advanced Transportation Technology at the University of Maryland.
Chief among them, Tarnoff said, is getting the cellular carriers to collect and share the cellphone data.
The carriers already collect an enormous amount of data so that they can, for example, tell whether a cellphone user is roaming out of their network.
Even if the tracking is done anonymously and in clusters, they say, it could allow state and federal officials to track where people are headed en masse in order, for instance, to know where protesters are gathering.
ITIS Holdings, which has been in the business for several years, for example, receives feeds round-the-clock of cellphone signals from the British carriers Vodafone and 02.
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