Google shares mobility data to fight COVID-19

[lammert]

Google will now share anonymized data of their users' mobility [blog.google] to help officials in planning and adjusting their COVID-19 mitigation strategies.

Starting today we’re publishing an early release of our COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports to provide insights into what has changed in response to work from home, shelter in place, and other policies aimed at flattening the curve of this pandemic. These reports have been developed to be helpful while adhering to our stringent privacy protocols and policies.

[engine]

Anything that can help is welcomed, imho.

[lammert]

The Dutch government wanted to use mobile phone location data provided by the national telcos to help them assess the effectiveness of their lockdown measures. The Privacy Authority, however, declined the request because it would share personal data. This Google initiative seems to be a good alternative for this purpose.

[mosxu]

Yes

[blend27]

Would You Contribute? Do You even know if you were contributed automagicaly? What else was contributed?

OK, scream at me for the grater GOO'T'.

I know i will take on one a chin for this one, but then....

P.S.
+..I am not from Kentucky of sorts. Here U loose, you call YO uncle, things go netter or better.... Just saying...

[Webwork]

The data, which is embedded in multiple .PDF files is . . umm . . problematic.

Enter my daughter-in-law, Kristen Tynski, who has a mind for data analysis and a knack for making data more visual. . and you get this, a highly visual / graphical interactive presentation of the underlying data:

"US South Failing to Self Isolate – Highly Detailed Google Data Shows Which Counties May be at Highest Risk" Source: [lawsuit.org ]

[lammert]

The map on that site is highly suggestive. Red indicates counties with a high decrease of people visiting retail and recreation locations while blue indicates a low decrease or an increase. The problem with the map is that the transition from red to blue is not around 0%, but somewhere around -50%. Many counties that are blue still have a significant decrease, but the casual visitor may think that it is an increase.

That is why several times admins have asked here to only link to authoritative sources regarding Covid-19, not to posts on non-authoritative sites by individuals who happen to be family of the member posting here. A moderator on this board should have known better.

[Webwork]

lammert, regarding the map's color gradient:

1. the detailed county-by-county data is embedded in the map - visible on scrolling over the maps outline of the counties; and,
   
2. the county-by-county "hard data" is ALSO presented in tabular form on the same page; and,
   
3. atop the map is a "key" to the color gradient.
   

Your critique also ignores the fact that an expansive color gradient ALSO carries with it issues of discernment, as finer degrees of shading are also susceptible to perceptual error. Ergo, the decision to embed the hard data into the mapped counties. Fewer colors remain useful for discerning broader or relative regional trends.

FWIW, lammert, "to the casual visitor" - a/k/a a "scan-idiot-savant" - someone might think your critique disproves or discredits the value of extracting Google's current available data from dozens of PDFs and presenting it in more easily digestible visual form. The truth is the data now is far more and more readily digestible . . unless you think casual readers prefer to read 50 PDF's.

The fault, dear lammert, is not in the data visualizations but in casual . . a/k/a shoddy . . habits of consuming information.

*"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves" Julius Caesar (I, ii, 140-141)

[zeus]

Well, I would NEVER use such a tool from a private company, special not from Google that constantly break the privacy rules. In Germany the health organization has launched such a app, so a person can be informed if they where near a person with corona,BUT everything is encrypted, not saved, no ip, nothing.

[NickMNS]

someone might think your critique disproves or discredits the value of extracting Google's current available data from dozens of PDFs and presenting it in more easily digestible visual form.

What? extracting Google's current available data from dozens of PDFs or you can simply click on the download csv link, that appears at the top of the page where the PDF links are to be found. Here is that link.
[gstatic.com...]