COVID and Geolocation: #Google edition
Geolocation data is getting increasing attention (▻https://www.newappsblog.com/2020/03/big-data-cellphones-and-covid-19-social-distancing-scorecard.html) as a way of tracking social distancing in particular. Google has just released a bunch of its geolocation data (▻https://www.google.com/covid19/mobility), which tracks changes in trips to retail, parks and other places.
In the meantime, a new paper in Science (▻https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/early/2020/03/30/science.abb6936.full.pdf) says that a good contact-tracing App, if sufficiently robust and adequately deployed, could avoid the need for lock-downs.
Of related interest, Zeynep Tufekci has a smart piece in The Atlantic (▻https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/04/coronavirus-models-arent-supposed-be-right/609271), pointing out that disease modeling isn’t useful so much for producing truth or knowledge, but as a guide for how to avoid worst outcomes. This seems absolutely right to me, and is in line the way health policy folks are pursuing what I’ve called a maximin strategy (▻https://www.newappsblog.com/2020/03/the-epistemology-of-covid-19.html).
▻https://www.newappsblog.com/2020/04/covid-and-geolocation-google-edition.html
#coronavirus #covid-19 #géolocalisation #surveillance
ping @simplicissimus @fil @etraces
