Data that shows where people live, work, and play is being sold to businesses and city planners, as mobile operators seek new sources of revenue.
Wireless operators have access to an unprecedented volume of information about users’ real-world activities, but for years these massive data troves were put to little use other than for internal planning and marketing. […]
A more important question, probably, is how people will balance their privacy concerns with the benefits of making their location data, or other mobile data about them, more available. Research and experience suggest that in practice most people don’t mind, or don’t care as much as they think they do about privacy […]
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/513016/how-wireless-carriers-are-monetizing-your-movements/