Enabling Humanitarian Use of Mobile Phone Data

Mobile phones are now ubiquitous in developing countries, with 89 active subscriptions per 100 inhabitants. Though many types of population data are scarce in developing countries, the metadata generated by millions of mobile phones and recorded by mobile phone operators can enable unprecedented insights about individuals and societies. Used with appropriate restraint, this data has great potential for good, including immediate use in the fight against Ebola. privacy challenges and regulatory barriers are making humanitarian data-sharing much harder than it should be for mobile phone operators and are significantly limiting greater use of mobile phone metadata in development or aid programs and in research areas like computational social science, development economics, and public health.