Google's Location Data Sheds New Light on the Spread of COVID-19
- Lasya Pullakhandam
- Apr 3, 2020
- 1 min read
Updated: Apr 10, 2020
We are all familiar with Google's location tracking feature, we use it all the time. We need it for navigation or finding our friends, but now Google has released this data to public health officials to understand people's changing movements in response to the current global pandemic.
They recently published anonymous data from people who have stored their location history with Google. The reports are being used to provide insights on how effective the stay-at-home order is and to what degree people are following it. They have charted the movements of 131 countries to start, marking the number of people going to different categories of places.
The North Carolina report shows:
a 40% decline in the number of tracked residents going to places of retail and recreation
a 15% decline for grocery and pharmacy places
a 51% decline for transit stations
a 35% decline for workplaces
a 13% increase for parks
a 10% increase for places of residence
Google's work will be used to help public health officials prioritize their response to the pandemic, but their work could be used differently. Taiwan is using location data to monitor quarantined citizens and make sure that they stay at home, like electronic fences. The location data may help understand the mobility patterns; however, the countries that have been implementing aggressive testing and containment strategies have been the most successful in their fight against COVID-19.
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