In a previous post post, an eye-opening Times privacy project article Twelve Million Phones, One Dataset, Zero Privacy was highlighted. In the article, the Times reporters revealed with imagery evidences that how smartphones locations are being used to create a diary of our daily lives. According to a recent news reports, the smartphone surveillance Apps are being used by the U.S. and Europe to track covid-19 infected peoples to slow the spread of the virus. In partnership with the CDC & White House Apple has recently lunched a new COVID-19 App and COVID-19 website to track coronavirus pandemic in US.

The other countries like China, Israel, Iran, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Russia & other countries are using mandatory smartphone apps to monitor the spread of Coronavirus.

Use of Location Data in US

The Washington Post reports that Google has tapped its ‘vast trove of location data to aid global effort to combat coronavirus’. It’s reported that its COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports is an effort to help public health officials to understand people’s movement in their community. Quoting Google, the Post’s article states:

In 131 countries, down to the county level in the United States, government experts will soon be able to see whether people are traveling more or less to grocery stores, pharmacies, parks and other businesses, or generally choosing to heed advice and stay at home.

From The Washington Post

In an other recent article the Times reporters write from their review of ‘aggregated data from Cuebiq, a location analysis company which tracks about 15 million cellphone users nationwide daily, that although people in all income groups were moving less than they did before the crisis, wealthier people are staying home the most, especially during the workweek’. These data revealead that ‘in nearly every state, they began doing so days before the poor, giving them a head start on social distancing as the virus spread’.

Privacy Concern Grows

According to the post article, privacy advocates are alarmed by this Google’s project and have raised concerns ‘over the role that data-rich tech giants should play in a public health crisis’. The Data and Privacy Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology director Michelle Richardson is quoted saying:

There’s no higher stakes.We’ve talked a lot about commercial use of data over the last couple years and the serious impacts on peoples lives. This is really life and death, so we have to get it right.

Michelle Richardson, Director Data & Privacy Project

A recent Hill blog reads Enlisting tech to fight coronavirus sparks surveillance fears. The Democratic Sens. Bob Menendez (N.J.), Kamala Harris (Calif.), Cory Booker (N.J.), and Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) quoted in the article saying “Although, the use of technological innovations and collaboration with the private sector is a necessary component to combating COVID-19, Americans should not have to trade their privacy at the expense of public health needs”.

Wearing Masks in Public

President Trump announced Friday that Trump administration recommends to Americans to ‘voluntary’ wear homemade masks or face coverings to prevent the spread of COVID-19. On the same day, the Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) recommended wearing cloth masks in public, according to the New York Times.

The virus (covid-19) can spread between people interacting in close proximity—for example, speaking, coughing, or sneezing—even if those people are not exhibiting symptoms. In light of this new evidence, CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies) especially in areas of significant community-based transmission.

CDC Website

Latest on Virus Pandemic

According to the daily CNN live pandemic updates, US recorded 1,158 cover-19 related deaths on Friday marking most numbers in a single day. In other record news, five infants have tested positive for cover-19 in Maryland including one just one-month-old.

RELATED RESOURCES

• Google taps vast trove of location data to aid global effort to combat coronavirus | The Washington Post
• Location Data Says It All: Staying at Home During Coronavirus Is a Luxury | The New York times