March 24, 2008- Once the country and the government had time to recover from the 9/11 attacks as best they could, the next logical step was to secure all other major cities and areas that might become future targets. With the assistance of companies such as Intrix, a small company that his spun off from Microsoft, who use “reality mining,” the Department of Homeland Security has been able to calculate what sort of damage would be caused by another such attack. For instance, they calculated that were a landmark such as the Golden Gate Bridge targeted and attacked, there would be immediate transportation chaos but that the area would bounce back quickly.

“Reality Mining” is the study of human interaction based on their mobile phone and portable device usage. Researchers speculate that information that could be gathered from individuals’ personal devices could provide more information than any other source. With GPS capabilities, a person’s location could be tracked, not to mention the more obvious information that could be gathered such as who users are communicating with and when. Such surveillance could work to track terrorist activities within the United States.

Also, this sort of research could assist city planners and public health officials by tracking individuals and using gathered information to plan for the future. Cell phones could be used to gather and track health related information. Data could be gathered from GPS to track traffic flow and travel patterns.
Of course there are drawbacks to any good idea. With this idea, there is the issue of privacy to be considered. But is comfort and “privacy” of some worth sacrificing in order to secure the safety of everyone?

Source: Businessweek.com