United States officials are using location data from mobile phone users to track the spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is causing the global pandemic of COVID-19. The USA, as of today, has a total of 163,807 cases of COVID-19 and has recorded 3,008 deaths.
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The CDC plan
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is working with state and local governments to track the movements of mobile phones of persons in areas with high numbers of COVID-19 cases.
The data is being supplied by the mobile advertising industry rather than mobile phone carriers. Federal, as well as local officials, have a database of geolocations from mobile phones from over 500 cities across the nation. The data collection is possible under the banner of a project by the CDC called the Covid-19 Mobility Data Network.
What happens to the data?
The data gathered from the advertising industries does contain personal identification information, say officials. Thus the names of the owners remain confidential, they emphasize. This location data, however, will help detect the spread of the virus across the country and help prevent its spread.
The analysis of the collected data will be undertaken by the CDC using an ad hoc coalition of tech companies and data providers. The whole process is being monitored closely by the White House, and government officials say reports. This has not been confirmed by the government yet.
Companies help
Some of the location-data industries based in the US have reached out with their raw data to the researchers and government officials. For example, LotaData, based in San Francisco, has launched a public portal that shows the movement patterns of the cell phone users in Italy and soon is likely to release the same for Spain, New York, and California. Unacast similarly has launched a “social distancing scoreboard” that shows adherence to stay-at-home orders in different regions. Foursquare Labs Inc. has stepped in with its data for local and state government use. Some of the largest telecom service providers of US AT&T and Verizon Communications have said that they have not yet been approached by government officials to provide their data.
Telecom providers of Germany, Belgium, Austria, and the UK have also provided their data to governments for use. All mobile carriers in Europe have also announced that they would share their customer movement and location data with the European Commission to look at the spread of the virus infection. Israel is using its intelligence agencies and anti-terrorism modules for tracking and looking at the spread of the infection among its population.
What can the data tell us?
For example, the clustering of the phones and their movements to and from retail shops, public places, parks, etc. could mean that people are still frequenting these regions in large groups and could be spreading the infection from one to another. New York, which has reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases to date, for example, shows that there have been congregations of mobile phones and, thus, their owners at Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. This information has been helpful for the authorities in enforcing social distancing and preventing public gatherings. Officials have since then posted warning notices at the parks, but as of now, the parks have not been closed down say sources.
The data from mobile phones can also show which persons are at home when they should be. This compliance data is of utmost importance, say experts. Staying at home or shelters could help prevent the spread of the virus. This would flatten the curve and eventually blunt the effects of the pandemic.
The economic impact could also be measured
With the mobile phone tracking data, the officials could also check on the minimization of movement to spending areas such as retail outlets and other places. There could be a reduction in movement in automobiles across the country and a drop in travel and tourism. This would help measure the economic impact of the pandemic in the nation and its indirect costs to the country.
Volunteering data
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have started a project to track the patients with COVID-19 using a mobile app.
Privacy concerns
Not everyone is comfortable with this level of data collection and storage, and many privacy advocates feel it is a violation of privacy. Some experts believe that it is impossible to anonymize all the data collected, and there should be legal and other safeguards in place to prevent misuse of the data now or in the future after the crisis is over. The experts fear that the ad industries providing this data to the US government are mostly unregulated.
Several laws, including those meant to combat terrorism, are being invoked for the use of this data, say experts. Large amounts of location data are being gathered to fight the viral spread, say officials.
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