Google has been spying on Scotland and now it's released data which shows how social-distancing has shut down the country.
The tech giant is keeping an eye on all users of products such as Google Maps.
It insists the data harvested during its surveillance project is anonymised, meaning it won't show identities of people or contravene their privacy.
The tech giant makes money by gathering up huge amounts of data and using it to sell adverts - a practice known as surveillance capitalism.
The first report for the UK, for the period between February 16 and March 29 showed that visits to retail and recreation locations such as restaurants, cafes, shopping centres and museums dropped by 85%.
You can see data for three major Scottish cities in the graphics beneath.
Visits to parks and public beaches across Britain fell 52%, and trips to transit stations fell 75%.
Visits to workplaces also dropped 55%, the figures showed.
The data is traditionally used by Google for apps such as Maps to reveal when specific places of interest are busiest, as well as to revise driving routes when being used for navigation.
The Government has voiced its support for the scheme, saying it would help assess the impact of social distancing measures put in place to stop the spread of Covid-19.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said: “We’re working closely with tech companies to find innovative ways to stop the spread of coronavirus, protect the NHS and save lives.”Google’s publication of Covid-19 mobility reports will help improve our understanding of the impact of the social distancing measures.
“Using anonymous data in this way is a great example of how we can do that, while continuing to protect people’s personal data.”
The UK report also features a county-by-county breakdown of movement habits, and Google says it plans to update them “regularly”.
The data comes from Google users who have Location History turned on in their Google account settings – this setting is off by default.
However, it can also be turned off at any time from within Location History setting, and data can also be directly deleted from a user’s Google Maps timeline.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel