Machine learning algorithm uses mobile phone records to tell whether you can read or write

Today, Pål Sundsøy at Telenor Group Research in Fornebu, Norway, says he's worked out how to determine literacy rates using mobile phone call records. He starts with a standard household survey of 76,000 mobile phone users living in an unidentified developing country in Asia. Sundsøy then matches this data set with call data records from the mobile phone company. "By deriving economic, social, and mobility features for each mobile user we predict individual illiteracy status with 70 percent accuracy," he says, pointing out that this allows areas with low literacy rates to be mapped.