Smartphones have become an indispensable part of day-to-day life. As technology has advanced, their original purpose of simply making phone calls has taken a backseat to innumerable apps that enable users to navigate to a location using GPS, check train schedules, watch favorite sitcoms, search for restaurants, and launch vengeful cartoon birds. Now, gadgets may predict users' whereabouts in advance.

Research at the University of Birmingham revealed that by building and analyzing a user's lifestyle profile, mobile phone companies could predict their future movements. Dr. Mico Musolesi led the study, which used mobile data (GPS data, telephone numbers, and texting and calling history) from a group of 200 people who resided in Lausanne, Switzerland. Using the extracted data, the team of computer scientists successfully predicted anticipated user locations with an error margin of just 60 ft. The scientists have developed an algorithm or formula that can forecast future movements.

"Information extracted from the usage of a mobile phone is an intriguing source of data about people's behaviour. We have shown that the accuracy of the prediction of an individual's future locations could be improved if his or her previous movement and the mobility information of his or her social group are taken into account," said Musolesi.

Even though, currently, mobile phone networks have a handset tracking technology at their disposal, the newly-developed algorithm will revolutionize the industry thanks to its predictive capabilities.

According to Dailymail, the scientists "compared data from one individual and their closest social network to predict a person's future location based on places and areas visited in the past and the frequency of contact between those studied."

The study would imply that the chances of two friends who frequent a particular restaurant visiting that restaurant is extremely high when both friends are in the same area. The formula, however, may not be reflective of the general population and would have higher accuracy levels in cities where people's movements are more streamlined and synchronized.

The technology would be a boon for marketing companies and even law enforcement. Police would be able to anticipate the location of criminal activities and track them with ease. Advertising agencies would be able to capitalize on the information and use it to create personalized advertisements that target individuals.

However, with such close monitoring data available, many are voicing privacy concerns.

"This development highlights huge privacy concerns," said Emma Carr, deputy director of Big Brother Watch.

Plans to release the algorithm as an application programming interface (API) are in the words. Musolesi intends to release the API next year, which would in turn open up several commercial possibilities for mobile phone service providers and app developers.

"You send a list of the last locations and we will return the predictive location in three hours," he said.