COVID-19 Reports From Google Show Where People Are Staying In
How well are people in your area complying with the government-mandated stay-at-home orders in your area? You can find out by downloading Community Mobility Reports (PDF) from Google.
These Google reports show changes over time. You can see changes in the number of people congregating in public paces such as grocery stores, pharmacies, residential areas, recreation areas, transport stations, and so on.
The reports, which Google started on 16 FEB 2020, cover 131 countries and regions. The reports show trends over several weeks, with the most recent information representing the previous 48-to-72 hours.
The global reports show data by country and region. The reports for the United States show data by state and county (where such data are available).
From Google…
“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. The reports 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…
“The reports use aggregated, anonymized data to chart movement trends over time by geography, across different high-level categories of places such as retail and recreation, groceries and pharmacies, parks, transit stations, workplaces, and residential. We’ll show trends over several weeks, with the most recent information representing 48-to-72 hours prior. While we display a percentage point increase or decrease in visits, we do not share the absolute number of visits. To protect people’s privacy, no personally identifiable information, like an individual’s location, contacts or movement, is made available at any point.
“We will release these reports globally, initially covering 131 countries and regions. Given the urgent need for this information, where possible we will also provide insights at the regional level. In the coming weeks, we will work to add additional countries and regions to ensure these reports remain helpful to public health officials across the globe looking to protect people from the spread of COVID-19.
These reports are quite interesting. Comparing the changes in the world as it was before COVID-19 and as it is now, can be quite startling.
Isn’t the fact that this could come from Google a seriously frightening concern?
We are not conspiracy theorists. If you are looking for privacy you won’t find it using any device connected to the Internet. Apple has been collecting info from users for a very long time, as has Microsoft. If you’re looking for privacy, disconnect your Internet, ditch your driver’s license, ditch your cell phone, sell your car, sell your house, destroy your credit cards, don’t go to the doctor, don’t use a bank… Every one of those places your data on the Internet. I seriously doubt that Google, Microsoft, Apple or any other legitimate company would want to suffer the seriously huge amount of negativity and public uproar should Google be found to be selling users PERSONAL information to anyone.
Funny thing, Yahoo and Experian both didn’t take care of their users’ data, and yet people seem to trust them more than Google.
Finally, the site we recommended and downloading PDF of Google COVID-19 reports in no way puts you in jeopardy – there are no ads on that page and if you read the information on the page all user data is in the aggregate.
You’re taking a much greater privacy risk using a smartphone or cellphone than you are looking at COVID-19 reports from Google.
Interesting by state.
You are so right about this, thank you