When it comes to privacy, let’s not confuse alarmism with vigilance

An (link in Spanish) between Spain’s and the country’s three leading mobile phone operators has sparked concern that the government is now spying on people.

The reality is that phone companies have been selling the mobility data of their subscribers in aggregate form for many years: a few years ago Barcelona City Hall to monitor commuting patterns in order to optimize transport routes, without raising any concerns about privacy. In fact when there were less than twenty devices being used in a given cell, no data was provided to avoid the remote possibility of a user being identified.

While growing numbers of us are rightly concerned about privacy, using phone data in this way is widespread and poses no risk. What’s more, such practices are more common among private companies than governments. Spain’s INE has always acted within the law, and provides an excellent statistical service.

All the INE is doing is obtaining data on population movement in a more reliable and complete way than through surveys. There have been calls for such activity to be banned. What would this serve? Does anybody really suspect the INE of spying on the…