European mobile carriers will share user location data to track coronavirus

Eight major mobile carriers have agreed to share customer location data with the European Commission in a bid to track the spread of COVID-19, the GSMA said in a statement on Wednesday.

The announcement arrives after Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica, Telecom Italia, Telenor, Telia, A1 Telekom Austria and Vodafone discussed tracking options with European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services Thierry Breton on Monday, reports Reuters.

Critics voiced concern over the potentially intrusive nature of the measure, saying a centralized database of location information could easily lead to a surveillance state.

Government officials attempted to allay fears by noting all collected data will be anonymized and destroyed once the pandemic is squashed. Further, the current strategy is about informing relevant agencies on the spread of the virus, not to centralize mobile data or police the public, an official said.

According to the European Data Protection Supervisor, the plan does not run afoul of EU privacy laws. EDPS head Wojciech Wiewiorowski in a letter to the Commission said it would be "preferable" to limit consumer location data to authorized experts in spatial epidemiology, data protection and data science. He added that the measures should not be made permanent, the report said.

"The EDPS often stresses that such developments usually do not contain the possibility to step back when the emergency is gone," Wiewiorowski said. "I would like to stress that such solution should be still recognized as extraordinary."

The EU agreement mirrors a similar move by Slovakia, whose parliament today passed legislation that allows government bodies to use location data to track the movement of those infected with the virus, according to the Financial Times. Data from the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine shows 216 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country as of this writing.

16 Comments

EsquireCats 1268 comments · 8 Years

About 4 years ago

Something that I like to see: Governments and companies actually discussing the customer's privacy, and erring on the side of caution.

Meanwhile this abhorrent behaviour (plenty of articles, but this one summarised most of the activities and is authoritative in marketing.)
https://adage.com/article/datadriven-marketing/24-billion-data-business-telcos-discuss/301058

avon b7 8006 comments · 20 Years

Given that the number one factor in virus propagation is our ability to crawl the world in record numbers and shorter times, tracking becomes a necessary evil.

The idea has been on the table for a while and now the scale of the situation has made it necessary to put it into practice.

benji888 135 comments · 11 Years

avon b7 said:

Given that the number one factor in virus propagation is our ability to crawl the world in record numbers and shorter times, tracking becomes a necessary evil.

The idea has been on the table for a while and now the scale of the situation has made it necessary to put it into practice.

No, just evil.

the US better not allow this, this is exactly what the current administration wants and they will try to use this “emergency state” as an excuse to do anything they want...they are not transparent and while people are reacting to tweets and news briefings they are doing something else completely. No matter what is said, you cannot trust our best interests are what they care about, because it’s not about that at all.

GeorgeBMac 11421 comments · 8 Years

If we are to escape the clutches of this virus, this is an absolute requirement:

Currently, the U.S. is not talking about either testing or social tracking not because it isn't needed but because we can't.

Because of a profound lack of test kits, testing in the U.S. is essentially limited to those who they already know are infected and those whose treatment may be affected if it is definitively proven. (The government claims we have "enough" test kits -- but that's only because they have set the bar so low.)

So, with no way to identify those infected zombies roaming our communities, there is no reason to think the virus will be contained.

Those countries who have contained the virus -- such as China and N. Korea have used a two pronged attack:
1) Massive testing of all suspected of being infected -- even if they do not have symptoms.

2) Tracking their movements over the previous several days through every means available so that those they have been in contact with can be notified and also tested.

Without doing those two things we will continue to have infected zombies roaming our streets infecting innocent people.

So far our government has only worried about the economy and the stock market. But all $2Trillion will go for naught unless we stop the virus (and no, social distancing will not stop the virus. It can only slow it down enough to keep our health care system from being overwhelmed.)

cgWerks 2947 comments · 8 Years

AppleInsider said:
Critics voiced concern over the potentially intrusive nature of the measure, saying a centralized database of location information could easily lead to a surveillance state.

Test run time.

benji888 said:
the US better not allow this, this is exactly what the current administration wants and they will try to use this “emergency state” as an excuse to do anything they want...

Current administration? Where did you get that idea? I think there are many in both parties that want this kind of thing, but don't confuse that with the current administration. The current administration, IMO, is a speed-bump in their way.

GeorgeBMac said:

But all $2Trillion will go for naught unless we stop the virus (and no, social distancing will not stop the virus. It can only slow it down enough to keep our health care system from being overwhelmed.)

Zombie apocalypse, no doubt. I think you need to stop watching so much TV. Sheesh, what do you think this is, the black plague?