Google uses aggregated anonymized location data from 131 countries to show which places are complying with social distancing and which aren't

New COVID-19 mobility reports show changes in traffic to stores, parks, transit stations, and more — Google is using location data gathered …

The Verge 2020-04-03 Casey Newton

Context & Ripple Effects

Google's COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports turn the location history already collected through apps like Google Maps into a public dashboard of social-distancing compliance across 131 countries — traffic to retail, parks, transit stations, and workplaces. The move came days before Apple launched its own anonymized mobility tool from Apple Maps data, making pandemic mobility reporting a two-platform standard almost overnight.

The reports also became raw material for others: UK researchers are drawing on the same Google location data to track and predict COVID-19 spread across Europe, and Google later folded the insight back into its consumer product with COVID-19 travel alerts and crowdedness predictions in Maps.

First-order effects

Governments and health authorities in 131 countries get a free, comparable baseline of movement trends without deploying their own tracking infrastructure.
UK researchers can now use Google's aggregated location data to model and predict the virus's spread across Europe.

Second-order effects

Apple's competing mobility tool forces platform-level parity on pandemic data, giving policymakers two independent sources to cross-check rather than one company's read.
The precedent pushes Google to keep productizing the capability in Maps itself — travel alerts and crowdedness predictions extend the same data into everyday navigation decisions.

Third-order effects

If crisis-era aggregation becomes routine, the norm shifts toward platforms publishing population-scale mobility analytics as public goods, raising standing questions about consent, anonymization standards, and government reliance on private data pipelines.
Epidemiology increasingly depends on a small set of map providers' data exhaust, concentrating analytical leverage over public-health response in Google and Apple's hands.

The trend: Location-data platforms are being repurposed from advertising infrastructure into public-health instrumentation, with Google and Apple setting de facto standards for how governments measure population movement.

Discussion

@privacymatters Privacy Matters on x
Google publishes COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports that chart movement trends over time by geography, across different categories of places such as retail and recreation, groceries and pharmacies, parks, transit stations, workplaces, and residential. https://www.google.com/...
@wsj @wsj on x
Google will share some of its user location data, covering 131 countries, to help public health officials track people's movements amid the coronavirus pandemic https://www.wsj.com/...
@gregggonsalves Gregg Gonsalves on x
Much better analysis of movement data. “Location Data Says It All: Staying at Home During Coronavirus Is a Luxury” https://www.nytimes.com/...
@rortybomb Mike Konczal on x
Brutal. One of the more telling data pieces I've seen, and also helps explain why we simply can't freeze work in place with our levels of poverty and lack of worker voice or security. Staying at Home During Coronavirus Is a Luxury https://www.nytimes.com/...
@googlehealth @googlehealth on x
Today we are publishing an early release of our COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports to help provide insights into what has changed in response to work from home, shelter in place, and other policies aimed at flattening the curve of this pandemic https://www.blog.google/... https:…
@farzad_md Farzad Mostashari on x
2/ Let me first distinguish this from use of aggregated anonymous location data to help understand changes in mobility and the effectiveness of social distancing interventions I think it will be feasible, useful, and I'm OK (I think) w the privacy risks https://www.wsj.com/... ht…
@tedonprivacy Ted on x
Today, we're announcing an early release of reports helping public health officials understand the public response to flatten-the-curve policies. These are aggregated and anonymized insights: all the data we're publishing is differentially private. https://www.blog.google/...
@alan_karthi Alan Karthikesalingam on x
Launched in support of international efforts to combat COVID-19. Reports to deliver insights to public health officials around the world, with the same privacy-preserving techniques that estimate busyness on Maps @GoogleHealth. #StayHomeSaveLives https://twitter.com/...
@nzewok Jamie Craig on x
Interesting report. NZ -94% movement for recreational and retail. Compare to NSW in AU which is only -44% https://twitter.com/...
@poloolop Umang Saini on x
India -47% for offices, +22% for residential. Compared to baseline. There was a spike on JantaCurfew day. https://www.google.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@tonyromm Tony Romm on x
NEW: Google taps vast trove of location data to aid global effort to combat coronavirus, fueling debate over privacy and public health https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@privacymatters Privacy Matters on x
And blog post here https://www.blog.google/... “These are unprecedented times and we will continue to evaluate these reports as we get feedback from public health officials, civil society groups, local governments and the community at large.” < but how can feedback be given? http…
@doblezeta Yves Gonzalez on x
Google has released a new Community Mobility Report website where everyone can download country reports to see the impact of social distancing guidelines related to COVID-19 https://www.google.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@josephmenn Joseph Menn on x
Location data, thus far sanitized for your protection, is beginning to flow from tech companies to public health authorities. Our story: https://www.reuters.com/...
@agidari Albert Gidari on x
Another example of mobility data that public health experts find useful and that is provided in a privacy protective way. If anything comes out of this pandemic, it would be great to see tech companies, public health experts and civil liberty groups meet and confer. https://twitt…
@simulacrandrew Andrew Schroeder on x
“With the virus already spread throughout the country, the research focuses on the success of measures designed to get people to stay home, as almost 40 U.S. states have ordered.” #Covid19 @DirectRelief https://www.reuters.com/...
@digiphile Alex Howard on x
After 9/11, warrantless mass surveillance of countries followed. We've been unable to put that genie back in the bottle: https://www.marketplace.org/ ... Read @JayCStanley on location data & #COVID19: https://www.aclu.org/... Think about drones & “smart” devices: https://e-plurib…
@martinsfp Martin Sfp Bryant on x
“Covid-1984”: I applaud the punnery. 👏👏👏 https://sifted.eu/...

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