Google’s Location Data Being Used To Make Sure “Stay At Home” Orders Are Followed

Companies and governments are willing to spend big bucks on our personal information, and they use it to shape the way we interact with the world and each other.

While advertisers typically find this data to be beneficial for audience targeting, governments are now turning to companies like Google to know the locations of people who have been told to stay home in the midst of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

Reuters reports that on Thursday, Google published data for 131 countries that shows whether people are obeying self-isolating and quarantine rules.

The analysis of location data from billions of Google users’ phones is the largest public dataset available to help health authorities assess if people are abiding with shelter-in-place and similar orders issued across the world to rein in the virus.

The company released reports for 131 countries with charts that compare traffic from Feb. 16 to March 29 to retail and recreational venues, train and bus stations, grocery stores and workplaces with a five-week period earlier this year.

Google said it published the reports to avoid any confusion about what it was providing to authorities, given the global debate that has emerged about balancing privacy-invasive location tracking with the need to prevent further outbreaks.

“These reports have been developed to be helpful while adhering to our stringent privacy protocols and policies,” Dr. Karen DeSalvo, chief health officer for Google Health and Jen Fitzpatrick, senior vice president for Google Geo, wrote in a blog post.

Government officials will be able to figure out where people are gathering regularly, and potentially put a stop to it in the name of “fighting the virus”. We’ve already seen pastors arrested, and have their right to assemble trampled on (while “conservatives” cheer on as liberty is being destroyed). It’s only a matter of time before the guy jogging on a trail is arrested for public endangerment, or being a “bio-terrorist” for daring to walk outside.

Now, we can turn the location service off of our phone, and think that we aren’t being monitored, but do you really think you have the power to control whether Google, or Apple, or a host of tech companies can pinpoint your location?

Wash your hands, and don’t eat bats.

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