Modeling COVID-19 with big mobility data: Surveillance and reaffirming the people in the data

Abstract

To better understand the COVID-19 pandemic, public health researchers turned to “big mobility data”—location data collected from mobile devices by companies engaged in surveillance capitalism. Publishing formerly private big mobility datasets, firms trumpeted their efforts to “fight” COVID-19 and researchers highlighted the potential of big mobility data to improve infectious disease models tracking the pandemic. However, these collaborations are defined by asymmetries in information, access, and power. The release of data is characterized by a lack of obligation on the part of the data provider towards public health goals, particularly those committed to a community-based, participatory model. There is a lack of appropriate reciprocities between data company, data subject, researcher, and community. People are de-centered, surveillance is de-linked from action while the agendas of public health and surveillance capitalism grow closer. This article argues that the current use of big mobility data in the COVID-19 pandemic represents a poor approach with respect to community and person-centered frameworks.