Google Publishes Location Data Across 130 Countries To Show How Coronavirus Lockdowns Are Working

Topline: Google is publishing users’ anonymized location data during the coronavirus pandemic to measure how busy sites like shops, train stations and offices are, in an attempt to show how well social distancing is working, and to help public health authorities combat the virus.

• Google has published this data for at least 130 countries, some at regional level, using data from billions of users’ phones who have their ‘Location History’ enabled on their Google accounts.
• The tech giant says it will preserve users’ privacy, and the data will refer to activity that took place 48 to 72 hours prior to show how busy locations including homes, offices, transport hubs, shops, parks and beaches are.
• “No personally identifiable information, such as an individual’s location, contacts or movement, will be made available at any point,” it said. The reports will be available for as long as health officials need.
• The Alphabet-owned firm says it has anonymized data, and users can also opt out of the service by turning ‘Location History’ off in their Google account.
• The dataset is the biggest one yet that is available to the public. The EU Commission’s Values and Transparency vice-president, Věra Jourová, tweeted: This is probably the first global crisis where the full power of #technology, social media and #AI can be deployed. People’s privacy and other freedoms should not be undermined in this process by technology that will be used to tackle the current crisis.”

Crucial quote:  Google said as it published the data: “As global communities respond to COVID-19, we’ve heard from public health officials that the same type of aggregated, anonymized insights we use in products such as Google Maps could be helpful as they make critical decisions to combat COVID-19.

“These Community Mobility Reports aim to provide insights into what has changed in response to policies aimed at combating COVID-19.”

In numbers: The first batch of data published by Google covers March 29, and compares it to the median value of corresponding days between January 3 and February 6 2020. It shows that in the U.S.:

• Retail and recreation visits were down 47%
• Movement around transport hubs fell 51%
• Movement around residential areas was up 12%

In the U.K. during the same time period:

• Movement around retail and recreation fell 85%
• Visits to transport hbs fell 75%
• And movement in residential areas increased 15%

Tangent: The U.K. government ordered a shut down of non essential businesses on March 23, which came into effect the next day, whereas in the U.S., there has been a state-by-state response to issuing stay-at-home orders. The data for Italy, which was the first country to enforce a nationwide lockdown on March 9, shows recreation and retail visits were down 94% in the same time period.

Key background: The coronavirus pandemic has prompted app developers across the world to develop new ways to track its progression, while governments are also trying to capitalize on this data to track user movement. The U.S. government is tracking cell phone location data using information from the advertising industry, not carriers, and is working with the CDC to gather data across hundreds of U.S. cities to see how well stay-at -home orders are working, according to the Wall Street Journal. Carriers in Europe have shared information with authorities in some of the worst-hit countries for similar reasons, including Germany and Italy, Reuters reported, as have China, South Korea and Taiwan.

Further reading: Israel Joins Iran And China Tracking Citizens’ Smartphones To Fight COVID-19 (Zak Doffman)

Coronavirus Scam Alert: COVID-19 Map Malware Can Spy On You Through Your Android Microphone And Camera (Thomas Brewster)