China to track cell phone users

The government of China says it will track the movements of 17 million citizens in Beijing. The government says they’re doing it in hopes of alleviating Beijing’s traffic congestion by studying patterns of movement. Traffic in Beijing IS apparently pretty awful, the Washington Post reports that a 60-mile jam in the city lasted for nine days (which…WHAT?) but obviously this new policy is making for lots of privacy concerns. The government will know where people went, who they were near, and that information could be used against them or as a tacit threat for people not to go certain places.