Google is utilizing location data to show which places are complying with stay-at-home orders.
The location data gathered by Google from smartphones is helping public health officials understand the change in people’s movement in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Google announced in a blog post, early friday morning that they use “aggregated, anonymized data showing how busy certain types of places are”.
However, there is a catch – The data being used is from people who have opted to store their location history with Google. This implies that those who have not turned on the location history setting, which is off by default would not have their data accessed.
Reports can be viewed by anyone in 131 countries. To access the reports, users are to visit COVID – 19 community mobility reports service.
After, selecting a country, there is an option to download the report in PDF.
Fortunately, Nigeria is one of the 131 countries. Hence, the NCDC and ministry of health can through data in the report, improve in their decision-making process as to the handling of the pandemic.
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