‘Giving back’ cellphone data so communities can plan

By Cyrus Moulton May 22, 2026
Cellphone location data

It’s a common question among locals whenever there’s a particularly large crowd at a special event or a local tourist attraction: “Where are these people coming from?”

A new online tool from the Social Urban Networks lab (SUNLab) with the Network Science Institute and the Boston Area Research Initiative at Northeastern University may be able to help. 

“Communities are not only defined by who lives there,” the teams said in a prepared statement. “They are defined by who shows up, where they come from, and what they do.”

Read more at Northeastern Global News

Illustration by Renee Zhang

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