DataCOVID, a study of population mobility to contribute to decision making in the face of the coronavirus

The State Secretariat for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, attached to the Third Vice-Presidency of the Government and Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, has promoted, in collaboration with the National Institute of Statistics (INE), a mobility study to analyze anonymous and aggregated data on population movements during the health emergency and for the time necessary until normality is restored, thus contributing to more efficient decision-making based on data.

DataCOVID has a first pilot in the Valencian Community and will allow an estimate of the mobility of the Spanish population during the period of application of the containment measures in relation to a situation of normality.

The objective is to analyze the effect of the measures on the mobility of the population, identifying if movements between territories increase or decrease or if there are areas in which there is a greater concentration of population, to contribute to better decision-making in the management of the health emergency.

The data, ally to manage the response to the pandemic

DataCOVID uses the possibilities offered by the Big Data To analyze large amounts of information and draw useful conclusions, thus gaining in efficiency for evidence-based decision-making, more coordinated and adapted to each territory.

The study does not track individual movements, but uses positioning data from mobile, anonymous and aggregated devices, provided directly by operators and eliminating any personal information, without identifying or tracking phone numbers or individual headlines.

By not using personal data, and using only anonymous and aggregated data, this study does not conflict with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or the Organic Law 3/2018 of Protection of Personal Data and guarantee of digital rights, and follows the guidelines set by the Spanish Agency for Data Protection.

In addition, the current health regulations require the competent authorities to use data for research purposes in exceptional and serious situations for public health such as the current one. The National Institute of Statistics will be responsible for the processing of these data.

The study will cover the entire national territory, dividing Spain into some 3,200 mobility areas, which identify population groups of between 5,000 and 50,000 inhabitants. The analyzed position data will allow to have a sample more than 40 million mobile phones throughout Spain.

With DataCOVID it will be possible to know if after the entry into force of the social distancing measures increase or decrease the movements of the population between territories, if there are areas with a greater agglomeration or influx or if there are areas with a high concentration of population in relation to their sanitary capacity.