Google has produced a series of reports on how people's movements have changed, following the restrictive measures introduced in many countries to fight the coronavirus pandemic. The information has been processed on the basis of the data that the US company collects from those who use its services, especially those for geographic information such as Google Maps (even when these services are not directly used).
The reports so far cover more than 131 countries, including Italy, and provide indicative data on compliance with social distancing and travel restrictions. The information should not be confused with that on the so-called “contact tracing”, which could only be obtained through dedicated applications to keep track of infected people and reduce the risk that they may infect others.
Variations in individual regions
Abruzzo Basilicata Calabria Campania Emilia-Romagna Friuli Venezia Giulia Lazio Liguria Lombardy Marche Molise Piedmont Apulia Sardinia Sicily Tuscany Trentino Umbria Valle d'Aosta Veneto The report for Italy was made taking into consideration the second half of February and the month of March, until Sunday 29, thus covering a period that begins before the identification of the outbreaks in Northern Italy, when measures had not yet been applied. restrictive. The reference line (“baseline”) is a median value that was calculated in the period between January 3 and February 6, 2020, taking care to compare the same days of the week between the two periods.
In the case of venues such as restaurants, bars, museums, bookstores and cinemas, there was a 94 percent reduction in activity at the end of March compared to mid-February. Travel to places such as supermarkets and pharmacies decreased by 85 percent, while activities in parks by 90 percent, with a significant decline after the decision to close the city ones.
Public transport stations saw 87 percent less activity, while jobs dropped 63 percent, with a more marked reduction following the government's decision to suspend non-essential manufacturing activities. On the other hand, mobility around homes increased by about a quarter, marking a greater domestic presence of the population.
The percentage data provided by Google combines both the trips / visits to the individual types of places and the stay in them. The data was obtained in aggregate and anonymous form, drawing on information that users already share with Google to keep a history of their movements. The same data is used, for example, to show the busiest times in the information sheets of the individual activities on the search engine.
Expecting some objections on the subject of user privacy protection, Google explained that the “Location history” is disabled by default, and that it must be made active expressly by each user. At any time, each user can decide to disable it by visiting this page of their Google account. The data previously collected can also be deleted from the system.
In recent weeks there has been a lot of talk about technologies to track the movements of the population, in order to reduce the risk of new infections. Privacy concerns have been expressed especially for systems that involve active tracking of individuals, as experienced in other countries especially in Asia. To date, there is still no clear scientific evidence to support that tracing has significantly contributed to reducing infections, and further investigations are underway. The Italian government is evaluating the proposals of companies and research institutions to create applications and computer systems to track the infections, but the times and methods are not yet known.
Although they have a certain degree of approximation, the data provided by Google seem to confirm what was highlighted by the Ministry of the Interior on compliance with the restrictive rules applied in Italy. The vast majority of the population has so far respected the travel limits, staying at home as much as possible (compatibly with other needs, such as work). Social distancing contributes to reducing the risk of new infections, allowing to slow the epidemic and reduce the stress for health facilities, which are facing an unprecedented influx of patients in need of hospital care.
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