A Northeastern University study tracked the
locations of 100,000 people outside the U.S. via their cell phone usage (without the users consent) and tracking devices. They found that people don’t move around that much. Most (almost 3/4) stayed within a 20-mile-wide
circle for half a year.
According to the FCC this kind of non-consented tracking is illegal in the U.S. The authors of the study said that they didn’t know what
phone numbers were involved and randomly chose the 100.000 people, providing anonymity to the study.
The study Understanding Human Mobility Patterns in appears in Nature does not disclose the location of the cell phone users.
Comment from Wireless and Mobile News:
It’s obvious to us that the study was not conducted in Los Angeles, because the amount of cell phones on the freeway and our distances would have skewed the study.