Google News
The US multinational Google in news published statistical reports prepared on Friday from mobile phone data on how the orders of confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic are affecting the mobility of people in up to 131 countries.
The reports, accessible to everyone, use anonymized (i.e. data from which individual identities cannot be retrieved) and generic data at the country level or, in some cases, region, to show graphically how habits have evolved. of mobility during the pandemic.
In summary and according to Google data, Spain has seen how activity in restaurants has decreased by 94%, has decreased by 76% in stores and pharmacies and has sunk by 89% in parks compared to normal normality. Similarly, public transport has been used 88% less and there are 64% fewer trips to work.
The figures are almost identical by autonomous community: there are always decreases of more than 90% in restaurants and above 70% in stores and pharmacies, which shows the awareness of the Spanish, no matter where they live, with the quarantine.
SIMILAR NUMBERS THROUGHOUT SPAIN
"The thought is to help those answerable for general wellbeing and different organizations to all the more likely comprehend what the impacts of the received measures are, and if vital, alter them based on the watched patterns," a Google representative told Efe, who asked not be recognized.
The portability diagrams speak to six distinct classifications: shopping and entertainment; general stores and drug stores; parks; open vehicle stations; work places; and private spaces, with the goal that it is conceivable, for instance, to watch the action pattern that has happened, for instance, in parks in Spain since restriction measures were proclaimed.
Spanish activity has dropped 94% in restaurants, 76% in stores, 89% in parks and 88% in public transport according to google news.
In reality, the only thing the company based in Mountain View (California, USA) is doing is adding data by countries and regions that already existed and was published individually through Google Maps, where you can consult in real time if a store, restaurant or other space is more or less busy than usual.
In any case, this new introduction permits us to see initially the advancement that action has followed in every one of the classifications by nation and accordingly better comprehend the degree
The reports are in this way took care of with the information gathered through the geo-location frameworks of the phones of people who have given their express consent, and are refreshed intermittently every two or then again three days to show the most recent patterns.
According to Google News:
Google said the reports are exclusively based on aggregated and completely anonymous data, and that they comply with its "strictest privacy protocols and policies."
Indeed, to additionally strengthen the nonexclusive idea of the information and feature patterns, for no situation are outright figures appeared, for instance, for individuals who have visited parks or bought in supermarkets in a given country, but the only ones Numbers offered are percentage changes.
Contrary to what some Asian countries such as China or South Korea have done, these reports do not include any type of individualized data, or movements of specific people, or states of health or infection, and therefore their usefulness does not lie in preventing possible infections. , but only in measuring the effectiveness of social distancing orders.
If a user wishes that Google does not include their movements in this aggregated data, they must ensure that they have marked as "deactivated" the Location History in the configuration menu of their mobile phone, although the company explained that this is an option that is coming disabled by default and it is the user himself who has to take the step to save his history.
During the most recent days, it has been opened in the USA. a debate on whether Apple and Google - which together control practically the entire market for mobile operating systems in the country - should collaborate with health the Government to furnish them with a lot of information that they as of now have on the populace to battle against the pandemic.
These data would be more specific than those announced this Friday, and would be closer to a model dedicated to monitoring individual cases and preventing new infections as Asian countries did, which would undoubtedly raise serious doubts about the privacy of users.
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