Big Mobile Data Mining: Good or Evil?

Increasingly, application and service providers collect data through sensors embedded in smartphones, such as GPS receivers, while mobile operators collect them through the cellular infrastructure. This information is extremely valuable for marketing applications, but also has an incredible potential to benefit society as a whole. At the same time, mobile data are highly personal, so privacy concerns are increasingly at the center of the public debate. Moreover, data aren't just used for understanding the past and the present, but also for predicting our future behavior, activities, and emotional states. So, should we be worried about the privacy of our mobile future? Are big mobile data mining technologies good or evil? This article aims to add elements to this ongoing debate.