Nexus - 0403 - New Times Magazine-pages

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LY BD © oF VE\N> MOBILE PHONES AS TRACKING DEVICES GLOBAL BIRTH RATE SLOWDOWN Readers of NEXUS will KY remember a letter to the Editor some issues ago (3#02), where a British motorist reported an acci- dent whilst driving along a motor- way. He was surprised to be mildly reprimanded for driving while using the phone, but even more surprised that the emergency operator could tell who he was and where he was at that point in time, because he was using his mobile phone. This issue has since made the news in Australia, when New South Wales Privacy Commission chairman Chris Puplick claimed that telephone companies' ability to track customers through their mobile phones was open to abuse under current privacy laws. He also claimed that telecommunications companies (or com- puter hackers) could keep tabs on mobile phone users via a signal emitted every 30 minutes from their phones, as long as the phone was turned on. A Telstra spokesman confirmed that mobile phones send a signal to the nearest cell station every half hour, allowing phone companies to determine the location of a customer to the nearest ground cell base. The signal was sent regardless of whether a call was being made, the spokesman said. ao” The world's population will peak at about 10.6 billion in 2080 and then decline, according to a report published last October. One of the main reasons for this slowdown is that the birth rate worldwide is falling faster than expected. These findings are from the most sophisticated assessment yet of the world's population changes. Published by Earthscan, the survey, titled "The Future Population of the World: What Can We Assume ) Today?", predicts that the popula- tion, which in 1995 was 5.8 billion, will never go higher than 10.6 bil- lion. By the end of the 21st century it will be 10.35 billion. The UN Population Division's latest biennial analysis also reveals that the growth of the world's population has slowed dramatically and unexpectedly. According to the report, India will pass China to become the world's most popu- lous nation with 1.6 billion people by 2050. It also reports that a population land- mark was reached in 1996. Africa's popu- lation is believed to have exceeded Europe's for the first time in recorded his- tory. "Nigeria alone will have twice the popu- lation of western Europe by 2050, at around 350 million", says Gerhard Heilig of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, based in Austria. (Sources: New Scientist, 14 December 1996; Sydney Morning Herald, 9 October 1996) According to the Sydney Morning Herald, police have been using mobile phone records, kept by Telstra and Optus for billing purposes, to check the alibis of murder suspects and to establish whom drug dealers are calling. Both Telstra and Optus have confirmed that they keep these records—which give the date, time, cell area from which a call is made, and its destination—for seven years. (Sources: Sunshine Coast Daily, 11 January 1997; The West Australian, 4 February 1997; The Sydney Morning Herald, 10 February 1997) se LT = ae) b> | Sa = Se ESS : ean Sa SS Se eS | Senne, ADL TACTICS EXPOSED BY NOAM CHOMSKY "In the United States, a rather effective system of intimidation has been developed to silence critique. Let me give you just one example. Take the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the B'nai B'rith, which is reputed to be a civil rights organisation. "It's rather comical. It's actually an organisation which is devoted to trying to defame and intimidate and silence people who criticise current Israeli policies, what- ever they may be. "For example, I, myself, through a leak in the New England office of the ADL, was able to obtain a copy of my file there. It's 150 pages, just like an FBI file— interoffice memos warning that I'm going 6 = NEXUS APRIL - MAY 1997