Tuesday, March 19, 2024

CDC May Have Your Cellphone Data To Track COVID Compliance: Report

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To “better understand mandatory stay-at-home orders,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention () purchased Americans' phone location data at the height of the pandemic.

The public health agency also used it to monitor social distancing, mask mandates, mandatory closures, mandatory school closures, vaccine campaigns and “social inequalities.”

It's not clear what social inequalities refers to.

CDC also used the data to monitor who was traveling to parks, their modes of transportation, population migration and physical activity.

One tracking company received $420,000, another $208,000, enough for unelected bureaucrats to receive the location data of at least 55 million cellphone users.

As Not the Bee reports:

The bureaucrats at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention bought data from tracking companies to monitor Americans' locations in real-time during the reign of COVID, according to contracts obtained by the Epoch Times.

The shocking and unsettling contracts were approved under emergency rules granted because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The CDC's stated purpose for purchasing the location data of American citizens was as follows, and I quote:

This Contract will provide CDC with the necessary data to continue critical emergency response functions related to evaluating the impact of visits to key points of interest, stay at home orders, closures, re-openings and other public health communications related to social distancing, mask mandates, and other emerging research areas (social inequalities) on community transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Mobility data are derived from the location of cell phones at various points in time and aggregated over time or geography or both to create various metrics that have been or will be used by CDC.

Although the data is purportedly anonymous, it has been shown that it can still be used to identify individuals. The CDC, of course, claims that the data they received had extensive protections and could not be used to identify individuals.

It's unknown if the agency is still using the location data it obtained.

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Patrick Houck
Patrick Houck
Patrick Houck is an avid political enthusiast based out of the Washington, D.C. metro area. His expertise is in campaigns and the use of targeted messaging to persuade voters. When not combing through the latest news, you can find him enjoying the company of family and friends or pursuing his love of photography.

6 COMMENTS

  1. Isn’t collecting, much less selling such data a crime. If not, it should be! Certainly seems like a 21st century violation of the 4th Amendment.

    • probably no different than any other commercial service buying your private info so I would say no it is not a crime. but my opinion it should be illegal for the Govt to obtain info for tracking and then only if a for a crime and via a court order.

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