The Moscow City Government intends to track the movement of citizens through their cell phone signals

Moscow Government intends to monitor the movement of citizens through their cell phone signals.

As the site lenta.ru (http://lenta.ru/news/2012/08/15/watch), this authority will negotiate with mobile operators so that they provide data on the movements of subscribers in the capital.

The purpose of the expensive project (some experts have estimated it at several million dollars) is to start using the data on the whereabouts of the inhabitants trace their routes, and thus make a model of urban traffic flows. This "map" the officials need to improve the situation on the roads.

A spokesman for the Department of Information Technology (DIT) Elena Novikova Moscow confirmed that the municipality is negotiating with the operators of the "big three" on the transfer of data. However, representatives of mobile companies told the newspaper that a formal proposal from the mayor's office has not yet received.

Lawyers will have to assess whether the proposal is not contrary to the rule of law "On personal data", which forbids a person to transfer data to third parties without its consent. Otherwise, operators face the risk of multiple lawsuits.

According to Novikova, information on the movements of citizens will be transmitted in anonymous form: State officials will only see their routes, but not the names of subscribers, telephone numbers and passport details. In this case, according to the president of the Association of regional operators (APOC) George Dombrowski, the law of contradiction does not arise.

Service, similar to the one of which asked the Moscow authorities, operators are already providing: for a set fee subscribers can obtain information on the movements of another person, which then must give their consent. - 17D-