Smartphone Location Data Knows If You're Staying Home

The coronavirus outbreak has sparked a new use for data smartphones collect about users’ locations.

The Chicago Tribune reports technology companies are using location data to track how much people are staying at home during the pandemic. Often, the findings are made available to government officials, including in Chicago, to help them determine how well containment efforts are working.

The data, which is compiled using GPS coordinates on phones, is being used to track everything from how far people are straying from home to how those patterns stack up to pre-pandemic travel. Foot traffic at bus stops and parks can be tracked. Some of the data can be broken down to the state or county level, or by city block.

The location information is the same data that helps push the local weather report to your phone and allows Google maps to show what time a restaurant is busiest. Users can opt out of sharing the data.

Still, some experts worry people will chose to sacrifice privacy for safety amid the public health crisis — and that reclaiming that privacy could be difficult once the pandemic ends.

“How do you balance on the one hand the need to keep people safe … and on the other hand, our civil liberties and freedoms?” said David Gunkel, a media and technology professor at Northern Illinois University. “It’s a difficult balancing act.”

Users typically benefit from allowing apps to know their location. A retail brand, for example, might push coupons to users’ phones when they’re near a store.

But by allowing their devices to collect data on their location, consumers are agreeing to share important details about their whereabouts that could be used for more than marketing.

Some tech companies that have started putting out reports using location data have made their own promises. Google, for example, said its coronavirus-related data sets will only be available for as long as public health officials need them.

Several weeks ago, the tech giant began releasing reports that show changes in trips to places like grocery stores, pharmacies and parks. Anyone can download the reports. The information is meant to help officials decide whether hours need to be changed or if more buses need to be added to a route to better promote social distancing, according to a company blog post.