Private Sources of Mobility Data Under COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is changing the world in unprecedented and unpredictable ways. Human mobility is at the epicenter of that change, as the greatest facilitator for the spread of the virus. To study the change in mobility, to evaluate the efficiency of mobility restriction policies, and to facilitate a better response to possible future crisis, we need to properly understand all mobility data sources at our disposal. Our work is dedicated to the study of private mobility sources, gathered and released by large technological companies. This data is of special interest because, unlike most public sources, it is focused on people, not transportation means. i.e., its unit of measurement is the closest thing to a person in a western society: a phone. Furthermore, the sample of society they cover is large and representative. On the other hand, this sort of data is not directly accessible for anonymity reasons. Thus, properly interpreting its patterns demands caution. Aware of that, we set forth to explore the behavior and inter-relations of private sources of mobility data in the context of Spain. This country represents a good experimental setting because of its large and fast pandemic peak, and for its implementation of a sustained, generalized lockdown. We find private mobility sources to be both correlated and complementary. Using them, we evaluate the efficiency of implemented policies, and provide a insights into what new normal means in Spain.