Govt Plans To Track You Via Mobile Phone; What About Freedom & Privacy?

The Indian government is planning to track each and every one of us, and by us we mean the 800+ million mobile phone users in the country. As per the amendments made to operator's licenses (that will  come into effect from May 31, 2012), 'operators will have to provide the Department of Telecommunications with real-time details of user's locations in latitudes and longitudes,' according to The Indian Express.

Initially, the government will provide specific mobile numbers to the operators who will have to share details on only those numbers. But within three years, information on the locations of all mobile phone users will have to be provided by the operators.

First things first. The information is already collected by the telecom operators and there have been numerous occasions where the information has been used to nail down people for fraudulent practices. So as such, it's a fait accompli for mobile users as someone is already tracking us every moment.

We would guess this is a step from the national security standpoint, considering the growing threat of terror attacks etc, but then what happens to our 'right to privacy' and where do we draw the line?

At the same time, if telcos have to share real time information on all the mobile users, it would throw up requirement for major data centre backup for the government. We wonder what sort of process will the government agencies follow to track a particular mobile phone.

What do you think, should the government agencies focus on doing better things?