Mobile Phone Metadata: A New Source for Official Statistics

• Activity Number: 462
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 6, 2014 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Government Statistics Section
• Author(s): May Offermans*+ and Martijn Tennekes
• Companies: Statistics Netherlands and Statistics Netherlands
• Keywords: mobile phone metadata ; official statistics ; big data

Abstract

Mobile Phone Metadata are a rich source that in the future can be used for accurate daytime population statistics. However, making statistics with this type of Big Data source requires a different approach than the traditional approach on survey or administrative data sources. The analysis of Big data for the production of statistics provide both technological challenges and methodological issues. Handling this kind of information needs special attention to protect and manage privacy to ensure anonymization of individuals. New collaborations between organizations (governmental, universities and companies) are needed to analyze these data sources. The results of our research show that mobile phone metadata can be used for statistical purposes. Daytime population seems to be the most promising statistics with value for society, research and policymaking, but also tourism statistics may benefit from mobile phone metadata. Statistics Netherlands is working together with Vodafone and Mezuro in doing this research. In this paper we discuss general methodological issues, the process for privacy protection and show some applications in practice for existing and new statistical purposes.