The coronavirus forces Italians to stay confined to their homes. To monitor the movement of residents, Lombardy, the region most affected by the epidemic in the country, has decided to monitor the position of their smartphones. Apparently, only 60% of the population has actually remained caulked at home.
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For more than a week, Italy has been in total containment. As in France or Belgium, travel is now limited to the strict minimum. To control the movements of the population, Lombardy leans on the position of smartphones, reports the Italian daily Il Corriere della Sera. As a reminder, Lombardy currently has 16,000 cases of Covid-19 and already deplores 1,640 deaths.
To keep an eye on its population, the Italian authorities therefore rely on the data provided by the telephone operators. With this data, it is possible to identify when a smartphone passes from one telephone terminal to another. This technology simply allows “Control the decline in the movement of people over a given period”, says Il Corriere della Sera.
So it’s not about “A control to monitor a phone per se”. The data therefore does not make it possible to locate a device, and therefore a subscriber, in particular, which would obviously be in breach of the law on respect for privacy. Luca Zaia, governor of neighboring Veneto, believes that tracing phones “Is a great solution” to enforce containment, but may pose a problem with privacy.
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40% of the inhabitants of Lombardy continue to move
According to the data retrieved by Lombardy, 60% of residents respect the rules imposed by confinement and remain caulked. On the other hand, 40% of individuals continue to move around the territory, in particular to work or do their shopping quickly. However, since February 20, the date of the first coronavirus-related death in the region, trips dropped from 20% to 50%.
Attilio Fontana, president of Lombardy, says the decline in displacement is still too small to stem the epidemic. Under these conditions, it is not surprising that Italy has decided to extend the containment period after the April 3, 2020 deadline. “The measures that we have taken, both the one that led to the closure of a large part of businesses and individual activities in the country, as well as that concerning the school, can only be extended to their term” says Giuseppe Conte, the head of the Italian government.
Source: Il Corriere della Sera
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