Apple launches new website to provide mobility data trends amid COVID-19 pandemic

Apple Inc has now come up with mobility data trends tool to provide helpful insights to local governments and health authorities amid the battle against COVID-19 pandemic. The tech giant used aggregated data collected from Apple Maps to create the new website which indicates mobility trends for major cities and 63 countries or regions.

The big-tech company said that Maps does not associate mobility data with a user’s Apple ID, and Apple does not keep a history of where a user has been. The company said in a statement that the information is generated by counting the number of requests made to Apple Maps for directions.

According to the mobility data, the change in routing requests while walking fell to -75 per cent in India and similar requests while driving fell to -83 per cent after the country announced a nationwide lockdown. In the United States, the change in routing requests fell to -56 per cent while driving a registered -45 per cent downward trend.

Similar effort from Google

Google has already published community mobility reports on 131 countries to help public health officials identify the places that witnessed a drop in footfalls due to lockdowns and movement restrictions. The company said that the reports will provide insights into the change in response to work from home, stay-at-home, and other similar guidelines issued by various governments to help flatten the curve of coronavirus pandemic.

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The reports show the movement trends over time across different frequently-visited places such as retail and recreation, groceries and pharmacies, parks, transit stations, workplaces, and residential. The big-tech company assured that the report has been developed while adhering to our stringent privacy protocols and policies.

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According to the report, India witnessed a 77 per cent drop in mobility trends for places like restaurants, cafes, shopping centres, theme parks, museums, libraries, and movie theatres. Meanwhile, grocery markets, drug stores, and pharmacies, which are categorised under “essential services” in India, witnessed a 65 per cent in mobility trends.

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