Corrected: UPDATE 1-European mobile operators share data for coronavirus fight
18/03/2020 15:38
(Corrects paragraph 12 to show Austria imposed a regional
lockdown; fixes company name in paragraph 13)
* Carriers share location data in Italy, Germany and Austria
* Anonymous, aggregated data help monitor lockdown
compliance
* No use of individual tracking, which would be illegal in
Europe
By Elvira Pollina and Douglas Busvine
MILAN/BERLIN, March 18 (Reuters) - Mobile carriers are
sharing data with the health authorities in Italy, Germany and
Austria, helping to fight coronavirus by monitoring whether
people are complying with curbs on movement while at the same
time respecting Europe's privacy laws.
The data, which are anonymous and aggregated, make it
possible to map concentrations and movements of customers in
'hot zones' where COVID-19 has taken hold.
That is less invasive than the approach taken by countries
like China, Taiwan and South Korea, which use smartphone
location readings to trace the contacts of individuals who have
tested positive or to enforce quarantine orders.
In Germany, where schools and restaurants are closing and
people have been told to work at home if they can, the data
donated by Deutsche Telekom DTEGn.DE offer insights into
whether people are complying, health czar Lothar Wieler said.
"If people remain as mobile as they were until a week ago,
it will be difficult to contain the virus," Wieler, president of
the Robert Koch Institute, said on Wednesday.
Germany is entering the epidemic's exponential phase, Wieler
added, warning that without progress in reducing
person-to-person contacts, as many as 10 million people could be
infected in two or three months.
However, privacy advocates are sceptical about whether
sharing customer data is useful or proportionate, even in a time
of crisis. One said that, if people know their phones are being
tracked, they will just leave them at home.
"I strongly doubt the value of sharing such customer
information," said opposition Greens lawmaker Tabea Roessner.
ITALY, AUSTRIA
In Italy, mobile carriers Telecom Italia TLIT.MI , Vodafone
VOD.L and WindTre have offered authorities aggregated data to
monitor people's movements.
The Lombardy region is using the data to see how many people
are observing a strict lockdown. Movements exceeding 300-500
metres (yards) are down by around 60% since Feb. 21, when the
first case was discovered in the Codogno area, the data show.
"Wherever technically possible, and legally permissible,
Vodafone will be willing to assist governments in developing
insights based on large, anonymised datasets," CEO Nick Read
said. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2BB3Y2
Austria imposed a regional lockdown after coronavirus spread
among ski tourists in Tyrol who, as they headed home, have
spread the infection across central and northern Europe.
A1 Telekom Austria Group TELA.VI , the country's largest
mobile phone company, is sharing results from a motion analysis
application developed by Invenium, a spin-off from the Graz
University of Technology that it has backed.
The tool is compliant with EU privacy rulebook the General
Data Protection Regulation, which restricts the processing of
sensitive personal data without its owner's explicit consent.
Invenium analyses how flows of people affect traffic
congestion or how busy a tourist site will get, said co-founder
Michael Cik, but its technology is equally applicable to
assessing the effectiveness of measures to reduce social contact
or movement that seek to contain an epidemic.
Austrian campaigner Max Schrems, who has fought a series of
legal battles over Facebook's FB.O privacy practices, had his
doubts.
"As long as the data is properly anonymized this is clearly
legal," he told Reuters.
"But to be honest, in Austria you just have to look out of
the window to see that people stay home."
(Writing by Douglas Busvine; Additional reporting by Nadine
Schimroszik and Paul Sandle
Editing by Gareth Jones and David Goodman)
((douglas.busvine@tr.com; +49 30 2888 5084; Reuters Messaging:
douglas.busvine.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))