Illegal massive mobile tracking

From the news I discober an study of the human travel patterns, the Center for Complex Network Research (CCNR) at Northeastern University has wanted to do an study about the mobility patterns that we have during our lives.

This is far from another study with volunteers that shows to the scientist their lives and they promise the privacy and the data anonymization. They, arbitrary, select 100.000 cell phones without the knowledge of the users under the excuse that the people will not be natural if they know the traking.

But WTF! Can be possible that someone without my permission (of a judge order) spy me? They could have data of where the people is and positioning the people you can deduce where this person lives and where he/she work. Also who the person is visiting, and where he/she goes on free time. It is a very hard intrusion!

First of all: ask for permision! The excuse of an statistic study or a scientific work is not enough! Who allows the phone companies to share this information?