Beijing to Track Cell Phones for Traffic Data

[JMcEntegart]

Beijing is planning to use the cell phone signal of its 17 million mobile phone users to better manage traffic and congestion.

Beijing to Track Cell Phones for Traffic Data : Read more

 

[tychoblu]

Big Brother is listening, not long before the Thought Police arrive.

 

[finboss]

Beijing does not infringe on the privacy of their citizens. They "protect" them.

 

[Marco925]

[citation][nom]tychoblu[/nom]Big Brother is listening, not long before the Thought Police arrive.[/citation]
The thought police in china arrived a Lonngg time ago..

 

[xkm1948]

I hate Chinese Communist Party.

Oh wait, I hate all kinds of Communist Party.

 

[dkant1n]

Do you really think that the NSA does not have access to that data already?

 

[eth]

Are you fuck1ng stup1d this kind of traffic measurement is common everywhere in the world. From where do you think in GPS Navigation systems like Garmin, TomTom, Navigon ..etc get the trafic data?

 

[nebun]

this is china we are talking about....but it's not different than what our government is doing to us now....yes the US government

 

[alienzander76]

The NSA and homeland security are already filtering cell voice/SMS data from US citizens in the name of security. Looking for keywords that indicate threats. Nothing new. GPS is relatively useless to them other than locating said device; it doesn't divulge secrets. How many people out there are using cell phones that they didn't purchase under their own name? My wife bought my iPhone as a present and it's registered under her name.

 

[caeden]

eth: garmin and other traffic monitoring GPS units get their information from local radio bands or over cell phone networks, not over the GPS network. Even TomToms communicate through radio to each-other directly to share information on traffic times and map updates. If it was over the GPS network they would be able to give your traffic everywhere, not just near major cities. Most GPS units do not transmit information to the satellites, they rely on a table and the time signature/ID from the satellites. Depending on the positioning of the satellites, with their time stamp, it can triangulate your position based off of the table. It is was not this way then you could get your position off of 2 satellites, but as it is you need 3 or more, and there are a growing number of dead zones as satellites drop from orbit without being replaced. Please remember GPS is really really old technology and was not made with the capacity to track things without augmented hardware. Most (though not all) GPS tracking systems are just tracking systems with a GPS antenna which must have their data retrieved over the cell network, radio broadcast, or physically removing the device and plugging it into a machine. Even if you believed that GPS units allowed gov't agencies to track you, you can go buy a unit with cash and they would have no way of knowing who bought the unit. I am all for erring on the side of paranoia, but know the limits of tech. It is much more limited than governments would have us believe.

Second, we are all being tracked (or at least have the capacity to be tracked) here in the US through the cell phone network without it being a problem, it is little surprise that a Communist gov't that does not believe in personal rights would do this as well.

Third, I am a little surprised that cell phone tracking data would be accurate enough to help traffic congestion. It is accurate to within about a 1/2-1/4mile of your location most of the time. But then again when a country has week long traffic backups I suppose it does not need to be that close.

 

[Anomalyx]

[citation][nom]eth[/nom]Are you fuck1ng stup1d this kind of traffic measurement is common everywhere in the world. From where do you think in GPS Navigation systems like Garmin, TomTom, Navigon ..etc get the trafic data?[/citation]
Look for circles or squares carved in the middle of lanes (on freeways near where I live, at least). Often times these are a sign that during road construction, the shape was carved, an induction coil was placed, and it was covered with tar or something. These sense the magnetic variance as your car passes by. Often they come in sets of 2 per lane. Now they have a fixed distance (the distance between the two coils) and a fixed time (the time between activating the two), so they can deduce a rate.
These same types of coils are also often seen right before intersections, to help traffic lights make better decisions.

 

[amdwilliam1985]

This might be off topic, but stop referring to China as a Communist country.
It is more capitalist country than U.S. and any other country in the world. Money buys you everything and anything in that country(including life), you can't do that here.

 

[f-14]

[citation][nom]amdwilliam1985[/nom]This might be off topic, but stop referring to China as a Communist country.It is more capitalist country than U.S. and any other country in the world. Money buys you everything and anything in that country(including life), you can't do that here.[/citation]
yes money in china buys you a voice all of china and the world can hear even if it's speaking against the communist party in china. i'd like to see that day and SOON!
i will stop refering china as communist when communist learn to grow a thicker skin when people speak out about the ill's and lack of freedom and liberty under the communist regime and try to quash those voices by running them over with tanks on world wide television and stop arresting only the people who are protesting, when you give back the lives of the opposition that the communist used ww2 as an excuse to murder by their own hands or by grinding them between communist forces and the imperial japanese. nothing says you love your fellow countrymen who disagree with you more then shooting them from behind while grinding them into the enemy. even now while chinese police try to drown out protestors chants with their whistles blaring, chinese street watering crews are spraying what ever small group of protestors gather to voice their concerns to the communist regime for disparities they see egypt, tunisia, yemen, jordan, and libya rising up and fighting for.
these chinese think the rest of the world can not see what they can only control in their own country, but i love seeing the communist propogandist trying to spread their disallusionment to the rest of the world in comments sections of the web on news reports regarding the protests every where else, including that of american workers in wisconsin. communist seem to forget that the rest of the world is alot better connected to each other with every passing decade then they are to their people. i actually know people in wisconsin, egypt, jordan and yemen some of them protested, i am able to ask them directly what's going on and what the deal is daily. can all the chinese with telephones and the internet say the same? i can not say the american government has not been without fault during the civil war, the 60's and since then in trying to control when and where and how people can protest, i blame that on communist envy and a fall into tyranny for all the success american politicians see the commies have had in eliminating the voices of anybody who opposes them. as far as money when was the last time anybody other then a communist bought a chinese presidency? the last 5 american presidents bought theirs. not since carter have i seen a presidency won based on the candidates.
speaking of presidents we all have to give a big round of applause to bush jr. for giving up that us navy E-3 sentry http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?us_military_specific_cases_and_issues=us_military_tmln_spy_plane_crash_in_china&timeline=us_military_tmln
more of american tech being used by the communist to control their people and stay in power.
gawd i love how my country lets merchants sell us out to our enemies. only in america.....

 

[K2N hater]

Nothing new... You folks certainly remember how Kevin Mitnick was caught.

 

[nebun]

[citation][nom]otacon72[/nom]...wow..what a bunch of conspiracy theorist nutjobs posting in this thread.[/citation]
conspiracy nutjobs you say?....just wait and see...for so many years people were conspiring about area 51....we know that it exists, yet our so called government refused to acknowledge its existence for a very long time.....if we did not have GPS immages they would still deny that it existed to this day

 

[mayankleoboy1]

better manage traffic and congestion.

*rolls eyes*
yeah. right.

 

[eddieroolz]

Knowing China, I think this plan is 98% ulterior motive.