Blog Number 7: Chinese Cell Phone Users Potentially Tracked

Colleen Mills

7 March 2011

5:50 PM

Beijing cell phone users may be tracked by China for dual purposes in the near future.

17 million users would be tracked as a means to end severe traffic congestion. Last August, there was enough congestion that the 60-mile line up of vehicles entering Beijing didn’t fully do so for nine days. However, China is notorious for controlling the information that exits and enters its borders. China said that they would “publish real-time dynamic information to ease congestion and improve the efficiency of public travel”. Much of the support of this idea comes from the crisis in Egypt where the government is using information from the citizens for beneficial reasons.

The problem arises when the Chinese government decides to violate the privacy rights of the citizens that are tracked.

My first concern is as to why the government is turning to track citizens as a means to control traffic. Would it not be wiser to construct larger roads, bypasses, or work with the citizens via carpooling or using an inner city transport system? I don’t understand how tracking anyone will help alleviate traffic problems at all. Just because you know where someone is located does not mean that you can magically open the roads for other travelers. I am sure there are more effective ways to help alleviate traffic in Beijing while allowing citizens to have the privacy they need.

This could also become a problem for other interrelated and connected countries. One has to consider the individual on the other end of the line of the phone conversation. Either way, privacy rights will be violated and therefore, human rights will be violated.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2011/03/china_said_it_may_begin.html