很多美国人都清楚政府会利用手机数据搜集反恐情报,但对试图了解经济动态的研究者来说,这些数据却有着更加强大的作用。最近,一个研究小组进行了一项实验,以验证是否可用手机数据来判断经济变化的总体状况。他们发现,能暗示某个人是否失业的一个指标是这个人使用手机的频率:丢了工作的人往往会显著减少手机使用次数,尤其是在工作场所附近。 Many Americans know that the government will use mobile data to gather counter-terrorism intelligence, but those who are trying to understand the dynamics of the economy have a much stronger role to play. Recently, a research team conducted an experiment to verify the availability of mobile data to determine the overall state of economic change. They found that one indicator of whether someone is unemployed is how often the person uses the phone: people who lose jobs tend to significantly reduce the number of cell phone uses, especially in the workplace.