Scary from a privacy perspective that they have all this data, but reassuring from the public health angle.
quote:
Health officials have begged Americans to practice social distancing and many states and cities have issued stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders to slow the spread of coronavirus. But not everyone is listening.
Now, a tech company is using smartphone data to see where people are taking these instructions seriously.
Unacast, a Norweigan company which collects and analyzes location data from various sources, released a study ranking all 50 states and the District of Columbia on a Social Distancing Scoreboard. The company tracked the change in average distance traveled using smartphone data and scored each county by how much residents had reduced their travel.
Overall, the study found that since Feb. 28, Americans have reduced their mobility by nearly 40%. Washington, D.C. topped the list, reducing its average mobility by 60% followed by Alaska, Nevada, New Jersey and Rhode Island, which all earned an A.
Meanwhile, Wyoming – the only state to receive an F – ranked 51st, with virtually no change in average mobility. Rounding out the bottom five states were Oregon, New Mexico, Idaho and Montana.
