Cell phone companies around the world have a lot of power, in terms of knowing from your data where in fact you are currently located and of course who you are calling.  In the Ukraine, they have given the government a lot of assistance recently during demonstrations, to the extent that they have provided information pinpointing all of the users of the network within an area.  Of course, once you know who the users are, you will also be able to get their names from the cell phone companies.  

During a recent protest, when protestors were gathering in a certain area, all the people in the area received an SMS which essentially said, “Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance.”  You might say so what – well they just brought in a new law in the Ukraine that makes it a crime to participate in a protest deemed violent and so it is much easier to intimidate a whole group of people now by simply targeting them with an SMS via their cell phone company basically opening up all their records to the government of that particular country.