The INE will monitor the Spanish mobile phones for eight days
This will allow them to obtain information on the mobility of people
The National Statistics Institute (INE) will monitor Spanish mobile phones for eight days. They have reached an agreement with the big mobile phone companies in Spain (Vodafone, Movistar and Orange) to be able to keep track of the terminals throughout Spain
This will allow the agency to "monitor" the phones of citizens to obtain information on the mobility of the Spanish. The tracking will be during the days 18, 19, 20 and 21 November (all of them working days); November 24 (Sunday); December 25 (holiday); July 20, and August 15.
The decision of those days is so that the INE can obtain information on the mobility of the Spaniards in different routines of their life, either on work days, on Sunday, at some moments of the summer or even during Christmas Day. Of course, the telephone data provided by operators to the INE will be completely anonymous. In addition, the agency has explained to the agency 'Europa Press' that this information provided by Vodafone, Movistar and Orange will not be positional - the position of the mobile phones will not be given - but what will be done is a count of terminals in a place and at a certain time. In this way, the Data Protection Law is respected .
The data will allow INE to know where the population moves to work or to which parts of Spain they travel when taking vacations. This information will serve to improve public transport and services that could be improved. According to 'El País', in order to carry out this statistic, the INE will divide the national territory into 3,500 cells with a minimum of 5,000 people in each one and during the days of 'tracking' the mobiles will be counted between twelve at night and six in the morning to establish the place of residence and between nine in the morning and six in the afternoon to analyse where they move. To consider it a daily destination, the mobile will have to remain in the same area for at least four hours in two of the four days.
